Following Jesus Quotes

“Marriage is not that two people love each other so much that they can find God in each other, but that God loves them so much that they can discover each other as living reminders of God’s presence.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“Dear Lord, Be with me today. Listen to my confusion and help me know how to live it. I don’t know the words. I don’t know the way. Show me the way. You are a quiet God. Help me to listen to your voice in a noisy world. I want to be with you. I know you are peace. I know you are joy. Help me to be a peaceful and joyful person. These are the fruits of living close to you. Bring me close to you, dear Lord. AMEN”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“Following Jesus means to let go of the “I” and move toward the “other.” Following Jesus means to dare to move out of ourselves and to slowly let go of building our “self” up.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“When we pray frequently and know that God is in us here and now, we are very attentive to others because we are less preoccupied with ourselves. We are less worried about ourselves and if we are not very worried about ourselves we see other people more clearly. We see their struggle. We see their beauty. We see their kindness. We see that they are not trying to hurt us but that they have their own problems. We are much gentler, because we are in the presence of the Spirit. We realize these people are also struggling.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“Even people who are immensely praised and have made an enormous amount of money, who have awards, success, and applause, can be deeply depressed. If you get closer and you prick the balloon, you realize they are just as insecure as everyone else. Underneath all that wealth, all that success, and all that praise, they are still a little person who asks, “Do you love me?”

Nouwen, Henri J. M.. Following Jesus (p. 53). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.”
― Henri Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“Free me from the many things that occupy and preoccupy me. Help me just to be with you. To pray with you, glorify you, thank you, worship you. I want to be attentive, more ready to hear you, more willing to understand the mystery of your birth and life, your dying and your rising. Make me still, Lord, make me quiet, and speak to me in that silence.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“in”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“We have already received the beginning of the eternal life. We are already in the House of God. We are already breathing God’s breath. Let’s stay there and listen carefully.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“When we really believe that God is with us and that we are already now breathing his Spirit, we don’t have to worry about the future. We don’t have to worry about what might happen next. We can start trusting that if we fully live the life in the Spirit, the future will unfold from the present as we travel through life.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“We might discover that all those people who have died in our life have taken up a place in our heart and keep nurturing us. They keep leading us along, they keep deepening our lives.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“Celebrating life is not a party, but an ongoing awareness that every moment is special and asks to be lifted up and recognized as a blessing from on high.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“I will never taste joy in life if I keep ignoring my pain.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“to us. The great illusion is that our identity, our selfhood, depends on our friends and our enemies, on those who like us and those who don’t like us. This is the great lie.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“whole”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“Worldly love is a transaction.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“Distractions mean that we are being pulled into the past or into the future. That is what a distraction is. We start thinking about what happened yesterday or what is happening tomorrow. Distractions mean we are not yet fully here. We are not fully present yet.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

“We know the pain. We are less familiar with the love. What do we do? We choose the pain. We hold on to our ways because we don’t know what it would mean to let them go. “Follow me” means “Let go of those fears.” Jesus says, “Think about the Kingdom first and all the other things you are so worried about will fall into place. Why are you so worried? Why are you so preoccupied? Why are you so afraid? I would like to make you free. I would like you to follow the Lord in whose presence there is life. I want to give you life. If you hold on to your own things you get enemies. You get walls. You get death. There is destruction, war, and”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety