The President's Devotional Quotes

“Dear God, clarify to me the things that I worship. If I have not placed holy priorities first, send your Spirit to help me reorient. I trust that you can do it. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Our tongues have great power and are best used when they’re truly needed. Until then, let’s cultivate a listening spirit.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Dear God, what do you want me to learn from those who came before? Search me and find patterns that I must address, and liberate me from prior sins. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“What are the patterns of our ancestors, our parents, and our loved ones, from which we must break free? Meditating”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. —Proverbs 15:28 (”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Christ can show up anywhere. In anything. There is an opportunity to hear his voice in every mundane moment of our lives.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Before the Civil War, a group of Southerners came to visit President Abraham Lincoln at the White House to warn him that when it came to the coming conflict, the South would prevail, because God was on their side. Lincoln famously said in response, “It is more important to know that we are on God’s side.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Dear God, let me never obsess over the motives, desires, and beliefs of others. Point me inward, into my own soul, and then to you. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Let’s keep watch. Let’s perceive the slow creep of oppression, wherever it might move. Let’s be aware of the darkness in our world—or even in our own soul—that seeks, like a fungus, to grow.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Dear Lord, you exist not just at the end of my rope—you’re at the beginning of it. Help me walk with you in good times as well as bad. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Let’s not discount the value of our trials. Someone needs to hear what we have overcome, and in doing so, they will grow closer to God.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“God is not looking for the perfect words. He is looking for perfect submission.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Thank you for the models you’ve given us, like our Christ and Dr. King. May we follow in their footsteps, as veterans of creative suffering, rejoicing all the way. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“It’s hard for us to grasp the brightness of our future, the treasures that lie ahead in the bends of those coming winding roads. The flavors we’ll taste, the melodies we’ll hear, the lands we’ll explore, the love we’ll feel, poignantly and deep. An all-seeing God knows all about it. But our feeble eyes have not seen, nor our ears heard, nor our minds conceived, what he has in store.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Dear God, let me not be held hostage by money or material things. Let me know the freeness of a life lived for you. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Let the Spirit of God within us come out of us, not just to accomplish tasks but to manifest beauty in the world.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“We are so bound together that no man can labor for himself alone. Each blow he strikes in his own behalf helps to mold the universe. —Jerome K. Jerome, Works of Jerome K. Jerome”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Dear God, I don’t want a quick fix; I want wellness. I give my life to you and will glorify you at every turn.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“AUGUST 19 THE “ACCURSED THINGS” And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. . . . But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan . . . took of the accursed things; so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel. —Joshua 6:18; 7:1 (NKJV) We have to leave “accursed things” behind. Led by Joshua, God delivered the city of Jericho into the Israelites’ hands. God just had one requirement: after the city is conquered, the Israelites should leave the “accursed things”—the idols, the spoils, the wicked items that corrupted Jericho—behind. After the victory, most of the Israelites obeyed God’s command. But one man, Achan, “took of the accursed things; so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel.” We have to scan our lives to see if there are items within them not of God. Are we watching, consuming, or participating in things that the enemy can use for our destruction? If so, we have to leave them behind—not only for our sake, but for our children, and our children’s children.   Dear God, help me leave behind the “accursed things.” Break me of any dependencies, and bring me into your light. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. —Galatians 3:28 (ESV) On June 16, 1963, in the middle of an epic struggle for civil rights in America, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel sent a powerful telegram to President John F. Kennedy: We forfeit the right to worship God as long as we continue to humiliate Negroes. . . . The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity. When we demean, humiliate, debase God’s beloved creation, the rabbi said, we forfeit our very right to worship God.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“And as every present state of a simple substance is naturally a consequence of its preceding state, so its present is pregnant with its future. —Gottfried Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics and Other Writings”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Dear God, increase our laughter. Let the sides of our mouths curl up into a smile more than normal; let joy be on our hearts. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Dear God, remind me of the beauty of your creation, as vested in me. Fill me with a sense of possibility this day, and let me do good work. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Let’s look beyond our momentary indulgences and consider the effects a generation from now. What ripples will our actions, our inactions, our conversations have in those distant, final hours?”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Dear God, pace me today with the song in my heart. Let each footstep be to the rhythm of gladness, and let those steps be directed toward you. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“But sometimes, when prompted by God, we have to let our hearts break too. And share that heartbreak with others.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama

“Open our hearts, God. To instruction, unheard. To possibility, unseen. To love, unfelt. To joy, unknown. If we have been closed off, we repent. And we ask you to open our hearts. Amen.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional: The Daily Readings That Inspired President Obama