Gods at War Student Edition Quotes

“It’s an inescapable conclusion: Worshiping the god of me is not in my best interests. The god of me takes many forms, but none of them satisfy.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“It’s no coincidence that we’ve left the god of me for last. You’ll confront many of the gods in our lineup at some point in your life. But this is one you’ll grapple with every single day — multiple times per day.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Christian bookstores aren’t much better than our popular culture. Recently, I went to the section for single adults and found about twenty different titles. Seventeen of them dealt with finding your future mate. My favorite title was If Men Are Like Buses, How Can I Catch One? Again, the message is: You need to catch the bus and be in a relationship.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“The message to those who aren’t dating someone is that you won’t be content or complete unless you’re in a relationship. It starts early. When my middle daughter was four years old, she watched a Disney movie about a prince and princess living happily ever after. When it was over, she asked me, “Daddy, who am I going to marry?” I told her she didn’t need to worry about that right now and that I would make that decision when the time came. (Surprisingly, she seemed okay with that.) But the not-so-subtle message that she picked up on is that “if you don’t have a prince, then you can’t be a princess.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Work hard. Don’t be like that loafer, Mary! Who’s going to get this stuff done? I wonder how important that stuff was to Martha after her friend had been crucified, resurrected, and taken up into heaven. I wonder what she would have given for just a few moments to sit at his feet. “Mary has chosen what is better.” That’s a choice we can make every single day when we choose to make our relationship with God more important than anything else on our to-do list. I know I’ve already said this, but I want to be clear: Working hard and achieving goals are an important part of leading a God-glorifying life. But they are not life. They are not even a measuring stick for the worth of life.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“It’s hard to worship the god of achievement and be still and worship the Lord God at the same time. When you can’t be still to connect with Christ because you always have to be doing, that should be a warning sign.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Jesus wasn’t preoccupied with a checklist of things to do and objectives to meet every day. He simply did whatever the Father wanted him to do and ended up achieving more than anyone in history. He regularly took time to get away and pray.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“But the god of achievement is always whispering in your ear: You have to do more. You’re not good enough on your own. You’re nothing without me.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Most all of us have an appetite for money or possessions. We think that if we could satisfy this appetite it would go away — if we could just make the money or buy the latest tablet — but that’s not how it works. Instead, the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 6:21: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Where we put our money reveals what we’ve put our trust in.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“For some people, the idea of standing before God without an impressive list of accomplishments is unthinkable. We want to look the part of a good Christian and prove our worth. But to God, success is precisely the opposite of that. It’s being willing to step away from all the stuff, all the trappings of appearance, and say, “None of that means a thing to me, Lord. I lay it all before you. You and only you are my success.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Entertainment can be as addictive as drugs, alcohol, or anything else.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“But the love of Jesus finds its greatest satisfaction in service rather than the servitude of others. It exalts them. It affirms them as children of God. It connects with them in body, soul, mind, and spirit. Jesus is our satisfaction. All along, it was intimacy we really wanted, and he gives us that. When we have a love relationship with him, an unending honeymoon commences. Christ grows more wonderful to us every day.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Instead of a quick thrill and passing sexual rush, researchers have discovered that viewing pornography can have long-term effects: • A greater tendency toward sexually aggressive behaviors, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, and rape. • A decrease in how much one values faithfulness. Sex outside marriage begins to seem less forbidden, more of a real option. • A major increase in sex without attachment. Sex becomes a physical act, rather than an intimate connection. It isolates instead of bonds people.*”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Amnon went with it. When his half sister came in to cook for him, he said to her, “Tell the servants we won’t be needing them this evening.” Then he instructed her to come to the bedroom and feed him the bread. What happened next is heartbreaking. He pushed the food aside and declared what was on his mind. She resisted. She pled for him to think about what he was doing, to think about the disgrace it would inflict upon her and his own reputation. The Bible says, “But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her” (2 Samuel 13:14). Tamar did what the people of her time did to demonstrate great mourning and suffering. She put ashes on her head and tore the beautiful robe she was wearing. These actions also symbolized her loss of virginity. She left weeping and broken. Amnon’s sexual sin brought incredible destruction and devastation, not just upon his family but on the entire nation. The disruption to a royal family means disruption to a country. Everything spiraled wildly out of control.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Nothing feels better than the joy and satisfaction of knowing Christ. Nothing comforts the soul as he does. Nothing feeds and strengthens and renews us like the time we spend with him each day. He bids us to take and eat. He bids us to come to the well where he offers living water, so that we never thirst again.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“God used Paul in mighty ways once he sat firmly in the throne of Paul’s heart. And that’s the same God we serve. He’s a God of forgiveness, a God of compassion, a God of mercy, and a God of comfort. He can use our past mistakes to bring him glory and us comfort in the future.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“When it comes to most things in life, moderation is the key. We shouldn’t eat too much, drink too much, exercise constantly, stare at a screen too much, or play video games for hours. But when it comes to our relationship with God, too much is never enough. He doesn’t want us to dip our toe in the pool. God wants us to cannonball into the deep end of our faith. He wants to surround our lives with his love and sit alone on the throne of our hearts.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“There is nothing wrong with taking prescription drugs to treat a condition or illness. It’s not idolatry to receive competent medical care. There’s also nothing wrong with food itself — God created it to taste good, and even gave us ten thousand taste buds in order to enjoy it. The problem comes when we start to look to drugs — prescription and otherwise — or food to do for us what the Lord God alone should do.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“he gets you to focus on your appearance in order to feel good. In other words, to worship your own image.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Is it possible that you’re seeing a relationship drought, a contentment drought, or some other kind of challenge, because you want it so bad that it has become a god?”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Whatever it is that wakes you — or for that matter keeps you up — has the potential to be an idol.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“What we complain about reveals what really matters to us. Whining shows what has power over us. Whining, in many ways, is the opposite of worshiping the Lord. Worship is when we glorify God for who he is and acknowledge what he has done for us, but whining is ignoring who God is and forgetting what he has done for us.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“God is often calling us outside our comfort zones. He’s calling us to a great adventure that requires risk and faith. Jesus’ invitation is to take up a cross and follow him — but it’s hard to carry a cross when comfort is your god. The gods of control and comfort are likely in direct conflict with the Lord God who has called you to a new kind of life.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“A lot of times your parents, and even the church, tend to focus downstream too much. It’s so much easier to pick up a little bit of trash. Dealing with what’s upstream is a staggering commitment. But the gods know the heart is the battlefield. It’s where the war is won.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“What you are searching for and chasing after reveals which god is winning the war in your heart. If you think of your life as the battleground of the gods, your heart is Bunker Hill. It’s where the gods gather and wage war. Whatever god wins the day claims the throne of your heart.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Idolatry is the tree from which our sins and struggles grow. Idolatry is always the issue. It’s the trunk of the tree, and all other problems are just branches.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“Idolatry isn’t just one of many sins. It’s the one great sin that all others come from. So if you start scratching at whatever struggle you’re dealing with, eventually you’ll find a false god underneath. Until that god is dethroned, and the Lord God takes his rightful place, you will not have victory. Idolatry isn’t an issue; it is the issue. All roads lead to the dusty, overlooked concept of false gods. Deal with life on the glossy outer layers, and you might never see it. But scratch a little beneath the surface, and you begin to see that it’s always there. There are a hundred million different symptoms, but the issue is always idolatry. That’s why, when Moses stood on Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments from God, the first one was, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2 – 3).”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“A god is what we sacrifice for and what we pursue. From where I sit, you have God on one side saying one thing, and your boyfriend on the other side saying something else. And you’re choosing your boyfriend over God. The Bible calls that idolatry, and it’s actually a pretty big deal.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“So here’s what I suggest. If you’re willing to pay a price, then this must be pretty important to you. It must be a fairly big deal if you’re willing to go through all of this.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
― Kyle Idleman, Gods at War Student Edition: The battle for your heart that will define your life