Without love even the most radical devotion to God is of no value to Him. Let me make sure that sinks in… You can gain all the spiritual gifts in the world. You can take the most radical steps of obedience. You can share every meal with the homeless in your city. You can memorize the book of Leviticus. You can pray each morning for four hours like Martin Luther. But if what you do does not flow out of a heart of love - a heart that does those things because it genuinely desires to do them - it is ultimately worthless to God.

J. D. Greear

Categorized in : Book Morning Spiritual

God sometimes answers our prayers by giving us what we would have asked for had we known what He knows.

J. D. Greear

religious prayer god

Being able to articulate the gospel with accuracy is one thing; having its truth captivate your soul is quite another.

J. D. Greear

able soul truth

Focusing on what we ought to do for God creates only frustration and exhaustion; focusing on what Jesus has done for us produces abundant fruit. Resting in what Jesus has done for us releases the revolutionary power of the gospel.

J. D. Greear

frustration done jesus

In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more and nothing I have done that makes You love me less.

J. D. Greear

god love jesus

When something becomes so important to you that it drives your behavior and commands your emotions, you are worshipping it.

J. D. Greear

emotion behavior important

Faith is not the absence of doubt; it is continuing to follow Jesus in the midst of doubt.

J. D. Greear

doubt absence jesus

It is one thing to understand the gospel but is quite another to experience the gospel in such a way that it fundamentally changes us and becomes the source of our identity and security.

J. D. Greear

source identity way

The Gospel Prayer

J. D. Greear

compassion prayer joy

Gospel change is the Spirit of God using the story of God to make the beauty of God come alive in our hearts

J. D. Greear

alive stories heart

The gospel has done its work in us when we crave God more than we crave everything else in life - more than money, romance, family, health, fame - and when seeing His kingdom advance in the lives of others gives us more joy than anything we could own. When we see Jesus as greater than anything the world can offer, we'll gladly let everything else go to possess Him.

J. D. Greear

joy giving jesus

My identity and my security are not in my spiritual progress. My identity and my security are in God’s acceptance of me given as a gift in Christ.

J. D. Greear

progress acceptance spiritual

True religion is when you serve God to get nothing else but more of God.

J. D. Greear

true-religion serving-god

Salvation is not a prayer you pray in a one-time ceremony and then move on from; salvation is a posture of repentance and faith that you begin in a moment and maintain for the rest of your life.

J. D. Greear

rest-of-your-life prayer moving

At your church, the week is more important than the weekend. Empower people and send them out for the week.

J. D. Greear

empowering weekend people

Worry springs from not being convinced of a sovereign God's absolute love for you. Worry disappears when you realize that God loves you unfailingly and will let nothing interrupt His plans for your good.

J. D. Greear

love-you worry spring

The gospel points us upward to a God who gave himself for us, backward to the price he paid for our sin, and forward to what he’s making us into.

J. D. Greear

paid sin

Awe combined with intimacy is the essence of Christian worship.

J. D. Greear

essence worship christian

True religion is when you serve God to get nothing else but more of God. Many people use religion as a way of getting something else from God they want-blessings, rewards, even escape from judgement. This is wearisome to us, and to God. But when God is His own reward, Christianity becomes thrilling. Sacrifice becomes joy.

J. D. Greear

sacrifice blessing people

The goal of the gospel is to produce a type of people consumed with passion for God an love for others.

J. D. Greear

passion goal people

If you want to be led by the Spirit of God, then devote yourself to the Word of God.

J. D. Greear

word-of-god spirit want