Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23

by Dallas Willard

Knowing about things—knowing what they are, being able to identify them and say them—does not mean we actually believe them.

I believe that one of the reasons we resist fully surrendering our lives to God is the fear that he might allow desolation in our lives.

There actually is a direct relationship between weird things and holy things.

God did not want Job back where he was; he wanted him in a far better place.

The life without lack is known by those who have learned how to trust God in the moment of their need. In the moment of need. Not before the moment of need, not after the moment of need when the storm has passed, but in the moment of need. For it is in that moment, when everything else is gone, that you know the reality of God.

Whatever we want becomes the most important thing.

Deny your self and follow Christ, or deny Christ and follow your self. Those are the options.

Christ was not crucified so that we wouldn’t have to be. He was crucified so we could be crucified with him.

He didn’t say, “Don’t have treasures.” He didn’t say, “Don’t own things,” or, “Don’t eat steak.” He didn’t say any of that. He said, “Don’t make this your god.”

if God is going to be with us, we should expect that our lives will be extremely different from ordinary human life.3 That is, our ordinary lives, our day-to-day-at-home-at-work-at-play-maybe-even-at-church lives will be extra-ordinary. We should expect nothing less.