Raw Faith Quotes

“Healthy doubt encourages us to bring our questions to God; toxic doubt drives us away from him. And healthy doubt makes an appearance for the short term, ultimately bringing us to a deeper place with God, while toxic doubt consumes us and lingers on, dragging us down day after day, year after year.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“our God is not a God who just sits up in heaven watching everything from afar. Jesus is in the fire with us—standing beside us, experiencing the flames with us. He mourns with us, hurts over our sufferings with us, and celebrates our victories with us. When the fires of life begin to rage, he is with us. The hotter the flames burn, the closer he gets.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“I do not need the Lord to heal me. What I need is the faith to trust him no matter what happens. In this, I have begun to realize that great faith is borne in the great unknowns of life.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“Maybe you feel so consumed with the pull of your desire that you wonder if there is still hope for you. Perhaps you feel so beaten down by a certain trial in your life that you don’t know if you will ever have the strength to get up again. Maybe you are so exhausted from your attempt to juggle all the different idols begging for your attention that you’re on the verge of collapse. If you want to have genuine faith in a God who has the power to stand with you in the fire and bring you out unharmed, then I beg you to examine your faith, as Scripture tells us to do: Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“When we cave to discouragement, we are really saying that we think our circumstances are bigger than the Creator of the universe. The reason discouragement has such potential to overshadow our faith is because, simply put, it reflects an unwillingness to trust God.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“Now, O Jacob, listen to the LORD who created you.           O Israel, the one who formed you says,      “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.           I have called you by name; you are mine.      When you go through deep waters,           I will be with you.      When you go through rivers of difficulty,           you will not drown.      When you walk through the fire of oppression,           you will not be burned up;           the flames will not consume you.” ISAIAH 43:1-2”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“God can’t be squashed into any formula or confined to a narrow explanation, and he doesn’t want our dreams to be small and manageable either. He is a God who blasts through all human boundaries.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“When we foolishly believe that our ways, our opinions, our plans somehow have jurisdiction over the sovereign will of the Creator of the universe, we will always end up in one place: the pigpen.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“Drifting away from faith tends to start with the small things, the unintentional things, the seemingly insignificant moments of discontentment.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“Despite this bad day, my Jesus is not at all surprised by my self-pitying rant. He isn’t disgusted by my inability to form complete prayer sentences. I don’t think he’s even disappointed that I didn’t open my Bible today, for to be disappointed means you must first have expectations, and my Jesus has no expectations of me. Standards—yes. Expectations—no.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“So I’m learning this is not about me but about what he wants me to be. Who do you want me to be, Lord? Help me not to be afraid.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“The more time that passes without an answer and the longer we wander through the wilderness of silence and shadow, the more fearful we become that maybe God isn't all we have believed him to be. It's in those moments that Satan plants in us the temptation to 'throw away this confident trust in the Lord.' The enemy wants us to forget 'the great reward it brings you' (Hebrews 10:35).”
― Kasey Van Norman , Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“Have you been infected with the toxin of denial? Here are the top five signs to help you find out: If you think you are above certain things happening to you, you are in denial. Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. PROVERBS 16:18 If you think you have the power to plan your own future, you are in denial. We can make our own plans, but the LORD gives the right answer. PROVERBS 16:1 If you think you are the only one who can get it right, you are in denial. People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives. PROVERBS 16:2 If you think you are never wrong and it’s always someone else’s fault, you are in denial. Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. PROVERBS 29:23 If you have a rebuttal to anyone and everything, you are in denial. Too much talk leads to sin.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“who have experienced such painful places of brokenness know it is only through brokenness and pain that we are allowed deeper breaths of faithfulness and fullness in our Lord. Don’t Throw It Away”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“He permits suffering that’s beyond our ability to bear so we have no other choice but to turn to him. As painful as it was for an easily bruised mortal like me, this tactical move on the part of the Almighty turned out to be the most gracious and loving force I’d ever experienced.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“there’s a dark side of that self-sufficient tendency too: pride. When you’ve lived your whole life as a fighter, thinking you’re tough enough to engage any enemy and win, you start relying on yourself and thinking you’re strong enough all on your own. And that is the very antithesis of faith.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight

“there’s a dark side of that self-sufficient tendency too: pride. When you’ve lived your whole life as a fighter, thinking you’re tough enough to engage any enemy and win, you start relying on yourself and thinking you’re strong enough all on your own.”
― Kasey Van Norman, Raw Faith: What Happens When God Picks a Fight