Things Not Seen Quotes

“Learning to rest in the promises of God occurs in the crucible of wrestling with unbelief—seasons, sometimes long seasons, when everything hangs on believing that God “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“Sometimes, in your battle with unbelief, your greatest ally will wrestle you—he might even make you limp—until you’re desperate enough to say, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' It is a great mercy to be brought to the point where you’re desperate enough to insist on what you need the most.”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“But don’t place your hope on time. Let Jesus mind the time, and you mind his faithfulness. He’s never yet broken a promise. He will answer you.”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“You are your truest you not when you are analyzing yourself or measuring yourself against someone else. You are your truest you when your eyes are fixed on Jesus (Heb. 12:2), when you are following him in faith, and when you are serving others in love with the grace-gifts God has assigned to you”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“Our role is not our reward, Jesus is. Roles will begin and they will end. The only way for us to end well is to have our hearts recalibrated. Jesus must increase and we must decrease. What rises in your heart at the thought of Jesus giving another person a more prominent role in his Wedding? How much do you long to have a more prominent role? How well are you prepared to let go of the role he has given you? What if he gives another your role? In our individual and temporary earthly roles, the Wedding is not about us. It’s about Jesus and his bride. And we should never compete with the Bridegroom for the bride’s attention and affection.”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“When the blessed Lord grants one a role to play, one must perform it faithfully, but never grasp it. The role is not the reward. The Lord is the reward.”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“The prayers we weave into the matching of the socks, the working of our hands, the toiling of the hours, they survive fire. It’s the things unseen that survive fire. Love. Relationship. Worship. Prayer. Communion. All Things Unseen—and Centered in Christ. It doesn’t matter so much what we leave unaccomplished—but that our priority was things unseen. Again, today, that’s always the call: slay the idol of the seen. Slay the idol of focusing on only what can be seen, lauded, noticed. Today, a thousand times again today, I will preach His truth to this soul prone to wander, that wants nothing more than the gracious smile of our Father: “Unseen. Things Unseen. Invest in Things Unseen. The Unexpected Priority is always Things Unseen. ” “Pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret . . .” (Matt. 6:6 NIV). “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). It’s the things unseen that are the most important things. Though the seen product of the baskets may have gone up in a flame of smoke, it”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“WE ALL WANT TO finish well, but so many of us do not. Why? Because we too easily cherish our roles in the Great Wedding more than the Wedding itself.”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“David had a very difficult calling: to wield the power of Israel’s kingship with God-dependent humility. Jonathan’s calling may have been more difficult, however: to yield the power of Israel’s kingship with God-dependent humility. Jonathan didn’t just yield to David. He loved David (1 Sam. 18:1), empowered David (v. 4), and protected and advocated for David (chap. 20). And when David’s faith-hand was losing its grip, Jonathan sought him out and “strengthened his hand” by reminding him of God’s promises (23:16–17). He could have done this only if he trusted in the Lord with all his heart (Prov. 3:5). Like Jonathan, God wants us to seek first the kingdom, not our prominence in the kingdom (Matt. 6:33). When we trust God enough to yield our prominence (or expected prominence) to someone else for God’s purposes, it’s a sign and wonder. And when we go beyond yielding to doing everything in our power to help that person succeed—nothing else quite portrays the Philippians 2 glory of Jesus: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:5–8) Jonathan did not consider the throne a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself for God’s sake and became a Christlike servant. Let us also “have this mind” (Phil. 2:5).”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises

“As a weak limb grows stronger by exercise, so will your faith be strengthened by the very efforts you make in stretching it out toward things unseen.”2”
― Jon Bloom, Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises