For me, prayer is not so much me setting out a shopping list of requests for God to consider as it is a way of keeping company with God. Philip Yancey More Quotes by Philip Yancey More Quotes From Philip Yancey The bible never belittles disappointment, but it does add one key word: temporary - What we feel now, we will not always feel. Our disappointment is itself a sign, and aching, a hunger for something better. And faith is, in the end, a kind of homesickness - for a home we have never visited but have never once stopped longing for. Philip Yancey disappointment religious faith If we comprehend what Christ has done for us, then surely out of gratitude we will strive to live 'worthy' of such great love. We will strive for holiness not to make God love us but because He already does. Philip Yancey great-love gratitude doe Forgiveness is the only way to break the cycle of blame-and pain-in a relationship...It does not settle all questions of blame and justice and fairness...But it does allow relationships to start over. In that way, said Solzhenitsyn, we differ from all animals. It is not our capacity to think that makes us different, but our capacity to repent, and to forgive. Philip Yancey forgiveness pain animal Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace. Light only gets in through the cracks. Philip Yancey imperfection light christian Jesus never met a disease he could not cure, a birth defect he could not reverse, a demon he could not exorcise. But he did meet skeptics he could not convince and sinners he could not convert. Forgiveness of sins requires an act of will on the receiver's part, and some who heard Jesus' strongest words about grace and forgiveness turned away unrepentant. Philip Yancey birth-defects grace jesus At the heart of the gospel is a God who deliberately surrenders to the wild, irresistable power of love. Philip Yancey power-of-love surrender heart Perhaps the most powerful thing Christians can do to communicate to a skeptical world is to live fulfilled lives, exhibiting proof that Jesus' way truly leads to a life most abundant and most thirst-satisfying. Philip Yancey powerful christian jesus The problem of pain meets its match in the scandal of grace. Philip Yancey scandal pain grace Prayer is not a means of removing the unknown and predictable elements in life, but rather a way of including the unknown and unpredictable in the outworking of the grace of God in our lives. Philip Yancey grace prayer mean Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it and I am one of those people... Now I am trying in my own small way to pipe the tune of grace. I do so because I know, more surely than I know anything, that any pang of healing or forgiveness or goodness I have ever felt comes solely from the grace of God. Philip Yancey grace healing people Grace is the most perplexing, powerful force in the universe, and, I believe, the only hope for our twisted, violent planet. Philip Yancey powerful grace believe The deadening part of Bible study is when you think you've already got it all figured out. Philip Yancey bible-study study thinking Like all good things, prayer requires some discipline. Yet I believe that life with God should seem more like friendship than duty. Prayer includes moments of ecstasy and also dullness, mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation. In other words, prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter. Philip Yancey irritation prayer believe The people who related to God best--Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah--treated him with startling familiarity. They talked to God as if he were sitting in a chair beside them, as one might talk to a counselor, a boss, a parent, or a lover. They treated him like a person. Philip Yancey boss god people If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge. Philip Yancey struggle prayer christian Jesus' response to suffering people and to "nobodies" provides a glimpse into the heart of God. God is not the unmoved Absolute, but rather the Loving One who draws near. Philip Yancey heart people jesus We are all trophies of God's grace, some more dramatically than others; Jesus came for the sick and not the well, for the sinner and not the righteous. He came to redeem and transform, to make all things new. May you go forth more committed than ever to nourish the souls who you touch, those tender lives who have sustained the enormous assaults of the universe. (pp.88) Philip Yancey sick grace jesus God's visit to earth took place in an animal shelter with no attendants present and nowhere to lay the newborn king but a feed trough. ... For just an instant the sky grew luminous with angels, yet who saw the spectacle? Illiterate hirelings who watched the flocks of others, "nobodies" who failed to leave their names. Philip Yancey christmas angel kings ... the core problem with Christians communicating faith: we do not always do so in love. That is an indispensable point to presenting faith in a grace-full way. Philip Yancey grace christian way There is but one true Giver in the universe; all else are debtors. Philip Yancey debtors giver universe
