Fighting Shadows Quotes

“The reason so many men think they don’t have any control over their present is because they don’t have any expectation about their future. They see life as something that is happening to them. And when you live without expectation, despair is just around the corner. But let me tell you right now, brothers—despair is evil. It’s from the Enemy. It’s a poison. And you have to go after it, or else it will kill you.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“Do not be afraid of discouragement and despair; Jesus will meet you there and walk with you into the dawn.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“Satan is sifting the men of this generation with violent force. And he wants to sift you. His plan is to send wave after wave of attack against you to blot out the sun. But take heart, we are going to learn to fight in the shade.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“Vulnerability is the death of pride and isolation.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“His most effective strategy to destroy men is to lull them to sleep with apathy—to ease them into a sense that there is nothing to do, nothing to become, nothing to fight—to get them to sip the sweet wine of self-pity and despair and never realize their strength.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“But I learned that meaningfulness is found in how you do something, not just in what you do.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“The truth is when it comes to your life, you are not at war with ambition; you are in a war for ambition—godly ambition. Without godly ambition you will collapse back into a cocoon of self. Without godly ambition your vision will be reduced to your own wants and needs. You won’t recognize it, but instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, you will seek the kingdom of the American dream.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“But maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. The war is in the mind. It starts there. And more men need to do war in the mind so they can win the war in the world. Our thoughts become actions, our actions become behaviors, and our behaviors become our lives.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“What have been the moments in your life when you’ve most felt despair? What areas of your heart and story does despair touch? Can you trace a misplaced hope behind it? A hope that is cheaper and lesser than our truest hope? And can you renounce that false hope right now?”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“Audit your adult years. Can you mark any moments where your view of (and hope for) the future changed the course of your life, whether for good or bad? Try to come up with five. Create a plan to mark every moment throughout this next week where God’s promised future of glory, goodness, and resurrected life enters your thoughts. I want you to see how often or seldom you allow God’s good future to make its way into your daily life.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive

“The Great Divorce”
― Jefferson Bethke, Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 Lies That Keep Men From Becoming Fully Alive