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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Rick Warren
Read between
May 7 - July 3, 2023
“Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do.” 1
Real spiritual growth is never an isolated, individualistic pursuit. Maturity is produced through relationships and community.
You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.
“It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in his power.”
“Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.” 2
“Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.” 3
The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the creator of it. The same is true for discovering your life’s purpose: Ask God.
“You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book!”
It doesn’t say God has love. He is love! Love is the essence of God’s character.
“I have carried you since you were born; I have taken care of you from your birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you.”
We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it. God’s purpose is not limited by your past.
Resentment always hurts you more than it does the person you resent.
For your own sake, learn from it, and then let it go.
fear-driven people often miss great opportunities because they’re afraid to venture out. Instead they play it safe, avoiding risks and trying to maintain the status quo.
Possessions only provide temporary happiness. Because things do not change, we eventually become bored with them and then want newer, bigger, better versions.
Real security can only be found in that which can never be taken from you — your relationship with God.
Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. Without a purpose, life is trivial, petty, and pointless.
If you have felt hopeless, hold on! Wonderful changes are going to happen in your life as you begin to live it on purpose. God says, “I know what I am planning for you. . . . ‘I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.’ ” 9 You may feel you are facing an impossible situation, but the Bible says, “God . . . is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of — infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”
“You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.” 12
“I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”
It is usually meaningless work, not overwork, that wears us down, saps our strength, and robs our joy.
The reason we feel we should live forever is that God wired our brains with that desire!
Your earthly body is just a temporary residence for your spirit.
If you learn to love and trust God’s Son, Jesus, you will be invited to spend the rest of eternity with him. On the other hand, if you reject his love, forgiveness, and salvation, you will spend eternity apart from God forever.
Years ago a popular slogan encouraged people to live each day as “the first day of the rest of your life.” Actually, it would be wiser to live each day as if it were the last day of your life.
There is more to life than just here and now.
Life is a test, life is a trust, and life is a temporary assignment.
Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test. You are always being tested. God constantly watches your response to people, problems, success, conflict, illness, disappointment, and even the weather!
You will be tested by major changes, delayed promises, impossible problems, unanswered prayers, undeserved criticism, and even senseless tragedies.
Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test.
“God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart.”
The good news is that God wants you to pass the tests of life, so he never allows the tests you face to be greater than the grace he gives you to handle them.
“What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why boast as though you have accomplished something on your own?”
“Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.”
it’s easy to forget that the pursuit of happiness is not what life is about.
In order to keep us from becoming too attached to earth, God allows us to feel a significant amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life — longings that will never be fulfilled on this side of eternity.
We’re not completely happy here because we’re not supposed to be! Earth
You will never feel completely satisfied on earth, because you were made for more. You will have happy moments here, but nothing compared with what God has planned for you.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God. It is the reason for everything that exists, including you.
Living for God’s glory is the greatest achievement we can accomplish with our lives.
All sin, at its root, is failing to give God glory. It is loving anything else more than God.
“Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified.”
Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory.”
God did not need to create you, but he chose to create you for his own enjoyment. You exist for his benefit, his glory, his purpose, and his delight.
Work becomes worship when you dedicate it to God and perform it with an awareness of his presence.
This is what God wants most from you: a relationship!
Trusting God completely means having faith that he knows what is best for your life. You expect him to keep his promises, help you with problems, and do the impossible when necessary.
In fact, you will never understand some commands until you obey them first. Obedience unlocks understanding.
You don’t bring glory or pleasure to God by hiding your abilities or by trying to be someone else. You only bring him enjoyment by being you.
