Recovering Redemption Quotes

“The worst thing you can do with fear and anxiety is to pretend you’re too strong to have them. The best thing you can do is just to let Him be in charge of them. Because He’s in charge anyway. And in Him, you’re in His peace.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Get over yourself. You were saved by grace alone through faith alone. Therefore, God gets all the glory alone. And when you understand this one basic issue, you’ll stop going into you and start going into the Lord—just laying out all the smelly, rotten groceries, shaking all the stuff out of your pockets, bringing it all out into the open, and saying, “Here, would You please get rid of this for me?”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“This is why the Word of God is so essential in the daily, ongoing life of a believer. Because from the minute you close your Bible in the morning, you’re entering a world that’s fighting every truth and teaching it represents. At every turn. And if God’s message is not deep inside you, where you can meditate on it, return to it, and frequently call it back to mind, you won’t be able to discern what’s really true from what may be really intriguing, really alluring, really convincing, but really false. And really defeating.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“You have no shot at experiencing real change in life if you’re habitually protecting your image, hyping your spiritual brand, and putting out the vibe that you’re a lot more unfazed by temptation than the reality you know and live would suggest.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“But isn’t the whole idea of sanctification the fact that we’re not really there yet? That we’re still growing and becoming? Still learning how to live the gospel out? Then why this obsession with pretending to be something for other people, who are pretending to be something for us? It’s madness. You see that, don’t you? The cross of Jesus, while definitely meant to include us in the family of God, is also designed to out us as people who desperately need what its forgiveness and power provide. The”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“But either way, the fruit of turning to God—before we sin, after we’ve sinned, even right there in the middle of our sin—is where Christians go to experience the flavors of God-fearing honor, gratitude, dependence, worship, confidence, trust, freedom, revival. Even those sins from our past that have been the most regrettable, the most difficult to move beyond—the ones we’d give anything if we could go back and do over again—Christ is able to redeem and rewrite even those into masterful sequels and come-from-behind victories. He takes what’s given us fits for so long and gives us instead a reason to celebrate what He’s done. To celebrate our redemption. To celebrate our Redeemer.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“if you struggle with being able to run hard after the Lord because you feel so unworthy, so unclean, so unsteady, listen up: “While [you] were still weak, at the right time,” God came to your rescue. And still does. And still is.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“And even though they fail us every bit as readily as we fail ourselves, even though they prove just as incapable of fulfilling us as all the other people do in our lives, we still keep pushing that gimme button like blasted morons, fully expecting that the next time we snag whatever comes out of it will be the time when the satisfaction finally takes hold, when the good feelings finally stick around and stay. And so like clockwork, we go down in flames again and again to our alcohol abuse or our sexual lust or our sweet tooth or our credit line—whatever particular desire is so powerful and predictable at deceiving us. We grab for things that have never failed to disappoint us in the past, thinking that what we must need more than anything is more of it . . . more of the same thing that’s never been able to satisfy us before. That’s the call of the world for you. And it’s madness.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“We can never grasp the extent of our depravity until we recognize the excellencies of our created dignity.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“In order for good news to be good—like the gospel is good (literally means “good news”)—it must invade bad spaces.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“The conflict you’re having is not primarily about them; God is working in this conflict to reveal something about you.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“The next sound you hear in the Garden of Eden is the heaving, lurching, ear-splitting shatter of shalom, of God’s peace, screeching violently out of phase with the pitch-perfect rhythm and harmony of His original creation. Outright rebellion had been declared against the King of glory. And suddenly, these experiences we know all too well now ourselves—guilt, regret, panic, disbelief, nervousness, blame, self-hatred, hypocrisy—all came shuddering through Adam and Eve’s bloodstreams for the first time in their lives. Like ice water. And both of them ran. And hid. And hoped to God they’d somehow gotten away with it.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“The gospel gives it all. Justification for our guilt. Sanctification for deconstructing our false ideals. Adoption for the red face of our secret shame. And suddenly, in place of the raw emotions that continually joined forces against us, knocking us around like a nickel in a clothes dryer, the sun can now rise in the morning on a truly perfect storm, as God’s grace feeds in us a new passion for Him, and passion responds by feeding us even more grace—a revitalizing shower where the only water seeping into our hearts is from the fountain of living waters, replenishing our once-guilty, once-shameful hearts with sheer joy, acceptance, and freedom. Let it rain.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“So sanctification isn’t something we lean back on, as much as it’s something we lean into. Rather than being an action only God can do, all by Himself (the way justification and adoption are), sanctification is an endeavor He undertakes in full cooperation and partnership with us. It requires us to exert what you might call “grace-driven effort”—made possible only by the merciful initiative of God, of course, and yet fully employing our human brains, brawn, and body parts as we go.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“the source of their confident certainty was simply God alone. God Himself. As long as they were in fellowship with Him, they could forever expect His blessings to just roll downhill and right into their lives. He was their righteousness, He was their innocence, He was their sense of identity, He was their dignity and honor. He was their peace. And He was their prosperity. He was the reason they felt no fear. So even though we’re confined today to a much different time zone than the one Adam and Eve set their clocks to—back before the Fall struck thirteen and threw everything out of whack—the winning response to fear and anxiety remains completely one-dimensional. It’s Him—not the favorable resolution of our problems. It’s Him—not the removal of every worst-case scenario. It’s Him—not an easy, breezy, adversity-free lifestyle. It’s Him. It has always been and will always be Him.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“the promise of sanctification is able to turn what may feel like a test today, like a trial by fire—like way more temptation or trouble than we can handle—into a muscle-building exercise that strengthens our spiritual core.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“A lot of times, the reason we struggle to feel and receive the love of God—to see ourselves as His beloved, adopted children—is because we’re not pursuing in our everyday lives those things His Word describes as being valuable and significant.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Godly grief readily confesses. After seeing your sin, and sorrowing over your sin, the worst thing you can do is to try stuffing your sin, hoping nobody ever finds out who you really are. Turns out, the best way to avoid being found out a fake is just not to be one—to be open with people about your struggles, while being equally as open in your praise of God for what He’s making of you, despite your many messes and problems. This is where the church comes in so beautifully, because it gets us around people who can help us carry the nagging issues of our hearts—people to whom we can confess our battles with sin and confess our need for a Savior—while we’re doing the same for them. When the only person that truly knows all about us is the person who uses our hairbrush, we are easy pickings for the Enemy, ripe for being outmaneuvered and outsmarted. That’s how we remain slaves to our repeated failures, by basically resisting the redeeming love of God and the needed, encouraging support of others. Because even if we’re as much as 99 percent known (or much less, as is more often the case) to our spouse, our friends, our family, and the people around us, we are still not fully known. We’re still hiding out. We’re still covering up. We don’t want them to know everything. But true sorrow over sin begs to be vented—both vertically to God and horizontally to others. So mark this down: You have no shot at experiencing real change in life if you’re habitually protecting your image, hyping your spiritual brand, and putting out the vibe that you’re a lot more unfazed by temptation than the reality you know and live would suggest. Even Satan himself cannot succeed at clobbering you with condemnation when the stuff he’s accusing you of doing is the same stuff you’ve been honestly admitting before God and others and trusting the Lord for His help with. That’s some of the best action you can take against the sin in your life. That’s responsible repentance.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Truth is, we’re a lot better off, and a lot closer to experiencing real, feel-good moments, when we’re wringing ourselves out for the glory of God and fulfilling our daily tasks—at work, at home, in ministry, anywhere. What did Vince Lombardi say in that famous speech: “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour—his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear—is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle—victorious.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“We need to let God get down underneath what we think needs changing, so that He can bring full restoration and redemption to us where we truly need changing.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“We’re using the gifts of God as if they themselves are gods.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“unless we’re missing our guess, your life and the gospel probably haven’t always felt in sync on a lot of days, in most of the years since. After the emotional scene with the trembling chin and the wadded-up Kleenexes, where you truly felt the weight of your own sin and the Spirit’s conviction, you’ve had a hard time consistently enjoying and experiencing what God’s supposedly done to remedy this self-defeating situation. Even on those repeat occasions when you’ve crashed and burned and resolved to do better, you’ve typically only been able, for a little while, to sit on your hands, trying to stay in control of yourself by rugged determination and brute sacrifice (which you sure hope God is noticing and adding to your score). But you’ll admit, it’s not exactly a feeling of freedom and victory. And anytime the wheels come off again, as they often do, it just feels like the same old condemnation as before. Devastating that you can’t crack the code on this thing, huh? You were pretty sure that being a Christian was supposed to change you—and it has. Some. But man, there’s still so much more that needs changing. Drastic things. Daily things. Changes in your habits, your routines, in your choices and decisions, changes to the stuff you just never stop hating about yourself, changes in what you do and don’t do . . . and don’t ever want to do again! Changes in how you think, how you cope, how you ride out the guilt and shame when you’ve blown it again. How you shoot down those old trigger responses—the ones you can’t seem to keep from reacting badly to, even after you keep telling yourself to be extra careful, knowing how predictably they set you off. Changes in your closest relationships, changes in your work habits, changes that have just never happened for you before, the kind of changes that—if you can ever get it together—might finally start piling up, you think, rolling forward, fueling some fresh momentum for you, keeping you moving in the right direction. But then—stop us if you’ve heard this one before . . . You barely if ever change. And come on, shouldn’t you be more transformed by now? This is around the point where, when what you’ve always thought or expected of God is no longer squaring with what you’re feeling, that you start creating your own cover versions of the gospel, piecing together things you’ve heard and believed and experimented with—some from the past, some from the present. You lay down new tracks with a gospel feel but, sadly, not always a lot of gospel truth.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Trying to earn God’s pleasure does not work. And yet it goes on all the time. All over the place. Look at any of the major monotheistic religions of the world. Tell us what you see. You see a system of thought where people perform certain acts or rites or scheduled ceremonies, hoping to keep their accounts paid up so they can one day turn them in for final redemption. Cashing in their chips. And it is so silly, these lists of things—especially when they become the way that saved-by-grace Christians try relating to God. This tilting-the-scales stuff is based on the very unbiblical idea that good little boys and girls are the ones who go to heaven. In reality, it’s bad little boys and girls transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ who go to heaven—those whose sins are covered by His redeeming work, and who love Him so much because of it, they live now to flesh out these new desires He’s placed within them as a way of expressing their willing worship. Not to buy their way inside, but to celebrate being inside. Because we can never be redeemed by religion.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Lazy people are some of the most exhausted, dissatisfied, and ill-tempered folks around because the joy-backed promises of laziness our lies.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Guilt is more about what you do. Shame is more about who you are.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Our senses are never more awakened to our need for His love than when our need is most exposed.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“It goes back to what Jesus said: “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him”—in other words, we’re not made unclean by the things we do, allow, or entertain, but rather, He said, “the things that come out of a person are what defile him” (Mark 7:15). We haven’t made ourselves sinners; sin is what’s already inside us. As we like to say it, “the heart of our problem is the problem of our hearts.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Anytime we’re not converting to others the same glorious realities that sealed our own redemption in Christ, we’re always an inch or less away from doing something wicked to somebody else—from not listening to them, not caring about them, not working hard for them, not valuing them, and all the various, ugly expressions that our lack of real love can embody. We won’t give people the benefit of the doubt. We won’t feel inclined to be gracious. We’ll all too quickly assume our attack positions, establishing ourselves on a war footing. We’ll flare up at perceived injustices and fight back with counterstrikes. We’ll turn against people. We’ll do it all. And know we’re doing it. And sometimes, we won’t even care.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“God loves us and has adopted us exactly as we are, knowing every single thing about us. And if He’s not ashamed of us, then why should we be?”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

“Shame is deeply rooted in identity. And the “self-ideal” we create for ourselves can often incorporate a lot of expectations that simply aren’t included in God’s ideal for us.”
― Matt Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change