Francis Chan: As we begin to focus more on Christ, loving Him and othe...

God has allowed hard things in your life so you can show the world that your God is great and that knowing Him brings peace and joy, even when life is hard.

Francis Chan

life-is-hard knowing joy

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.

Francis Chan

success inspiring inspirational

The world says love yourself, grab all you can, follow your heart. Jesus says deny yourself, grab your cross and follow me.

Francis Chan

love-yourself heart jesus

It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe - the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss.

Francis Chan

sacrifice crazy song

But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.

Francis Chan

situation trouble god

God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.

Francis Chan

definitions what-matters purpose

Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church...so long as it doesn't impinge on their standard of living. Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right. Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want to be saved from the penalty of their sin. Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends. Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor.

Francis Chan

luxury christian long

Life is about Jesus. We are not here to tell our story, but His.

Francis Chan

life-is stories jesus

If God cared only about religious activities, then the Pharisees would have been heroes of the faith.

Francis Chan

pharisees religious hero

The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His.

Francis Chan

inspiration christian want

I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don't swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally, and seriously, is rarely considered. That's for the 'radicals' who are 'unbalanced' and who go 'overboard.' Most of us want a balanced life we can control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering.

Francis Chan

nice goal children

We should be so joyful from God's grace that others would respond by saying, 'I wish I had your God.

Francis Chan

joyful grace wish

We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.

Francis Chan

powerful inspiration christian

Churchgoers all across the nation say the Holy Spirit has entered them. They claim that God has given them a supernatural ability to follow Christ, put their sin to death, and serve the church. Christians talk about being born again say that they they were dead but now have come to life. We have become hardened to those words, but they are powerful words that have significant meaning. Yet when those outside the church see no difference in our lives, they begin to question our integrity, out sanity, or even worse, our God. And can you blame them?

Francis Chan

powerful christian integrity

A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled up on top of it.

Francis Chan

team sports commitment

God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him.

Francis Chan

unafraid comfortable

The Bible teaches that true joy is formed in the midst of the difficult seasons of life.

Francis Chan

true-joy midst difficult

I’ve got this amazing relationship with God that is better than life, itself, so marvelous, so wonderful that everything else can fall apart and I’m okay.

Francis Chan

relationship-with-god wonderful fall

My pride and immaturity caused me to make things more of a struggle than they had to be. I can always blame others or circumstances, but the truth was that my own sinful pride led to more stress than anything else.

Francis Chan

stress pride struggle

I have one reason why you should walk away from that temptation right now. One reason: God. Is. Better.

Francis Chan

should temptation reason-why

As we begin to focus more on Christ, loving Him and others becomes more natural. As long as we pursuing Him, we satisfied in Him. It is when we stop actively loving Him that we find ourselves restless and gravitating toward other means of fulfillment