Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
I finished this book on July 2, 2017. Easily one of my favorite books. I couldn't put it down, which is why it took around a week to read, and that was pacing myself so I could appreciate it. This book was a tear jerker, which I'm not ashamed to admit. Kyle's transparency and vulnerability right out of the gate allows you to be vulnerable and expose the messiest parts of your life, and immediately recognize that no matter what you've done, you're never too far for God's grace to reach you. If that's not enough, it empowers you to go one step further than recognizing and receiving grace, but sharing grace with others. Hebrews 12:15 tells us to "See to it that no one misses the grace of God." It's my prayer that we all recognize the undeserved grace we have received from our Heavenly Father and take it upon ourselves to make sure no one misses experiencing that same grace for themselves. That's not a suggestion from our Lord, it's a command. But more than a command, it's an honor we get to be part of in building God's kingdom. One of my favorite takeaways from this book is the fact that gratitude is not dependent upon circumstances, but rather it's recognizing God's grace alone is reason enough to be thankful, in all circumstances.
"We want to follow Jesus without carrying a cross. In other words, we want to follow Jesus close enough to get the benefits but not so close that it requires anything from us."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Have you ever encountered a verse of Scripture where it feels less like you reading it and more like God is reading it to you?"
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"See to it that no one misses the grace of God."
― Hebrews 12:15
"When we miss grace things become toxic. Religion without grace is poisonous. A relationship without grace is poisonous. A church without grace is poisonous. A heart without grace is poisonous. The bitter root may be small and slow in its growth, but eventually the poison takes effect."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"I'm less interested, and for that matter less qualified, to teach you about the doctrine of grace. I am much more interested in helping you experience grace. I tend to think grace is best and most fully understood not by way of explanation alone but through experience."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Paul uses the word grace more than a hundred times in his letters as he helps the church understand grace. Jesus, on the other hand, never used the word grace. Instead he showed us what it looked like. Both approaches are helpful and needed, and certainly Paul's explanations were motivated by his own experience of grace and his desire for others to experience it. But if grace is explained without being experienced, it really doesn't have much effect."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God's grace is compelling when explained but irresistible when experienced."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Grace is powerful enough to erase your guilt. Grace is big enough to cover your shame. Grace is real enough to heal your relationships. Grace is strong enough to hold you up when you're weak. Grace is sweet enough to cure your bitterness. Grace is satisfying enough to deal with your disappointment. Grace is beautiful enough to redeem your brokenness. Grace explained is necessary, but grace experienced is essential."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Our ability to appreciate grace is in direct correlation to the degree to which we acknowledge our need for it. The more I recognize the ugliness of my sin, the more I can appreciate the beauty of God's grace. The Bible holds up a mirror and confronts us with the reality of our sin."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"We work hard at convincing ourselves and others we're not that bad, but the truth is we are worse than we ever imagined. The more you push back on that, the more you push back on experiencing God's grace. If we miss the reality and depth of our sin, we miss out on the grace of God."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Until we recognize our need for grace, we won't care about receiving it."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"I can tell you confidently that you've done nothing so horrible that grace can't cover it. Grace is always greater — no matter what."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"The truth is I am worse than I ever wanted to admit, but God's grace is greater than I ever could have imagined."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Sometime our sin stays hidden because we are in denial or because our pride has blinded us to it. But oftentimes we try to keep our sin a secret because we just can't deal with what we've done. So we do our best not to think about the mistakes we've made or the sins we've committed, and we try to steer clear of God. How could he possibly forgive us when we can't even forgive ourselves?"
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"You can run away and hide, but grace is relentless. Grace will chase you down."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Some of you think that the worst thing that could happen to you is that your sins will be found out and your secrets will be exposed. You're afraid that someone's going to bring up something you did a long time ago. You don't want anyone to know, and since God already knows, you do your best to avoid him. You think the worst thing that could happen is that you get found out and forced to confront the truth. But that's not the worst thing. The worst thing that could happen is that you go through life and nobody knows. No one ever finds out. You just carry the weight of your guilt and shame around with you everywhere. The worst thing that could happen is that you spend your life trying to outrun God because you think he's chasing you to collect what you owe — when he's really chasing you to give you what you could never afford."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"When God's grace and mercy collide with our shame and guilt, it's messy but it's beautiful. Jesus knows everything you ever did, but he wants to make sure you know that grace is greater."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"The grip of regret can be more than demoralizing, it can be paralyzing. We can't seem to move forward because we obsess over something that has already happened, something that can't be unwound or undone. A regret tends to focus on a specific moment, a time and place where you did or didn't do something, and now you have to live with the consequences."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"You may not be locked up behind bars, but that doesn't mean you're not a prisoner. Most of us are desperate to be free from the guilt and regrets that imprison us."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Our regrets should lead to remorse. That's the right response when we are confronted with our sin. God's grace won't leave you there, but that's where God's grace will most often find you."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"The fire of sin is intense, but is put out by a small amount of tears, for the tear puts out a furnace of faults and cleans our wounds of sins."
― John Chrysostom
"I've discovered that extending grace and forgiveness to someone who doesn't deserve it and can't make it right is more than a decision we make, it's a journey we take."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Grace is only grace if it goes both ways. Receiving it from God but refusing to give it to others isn't an option."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"The litmus test for the reality of grace you have received from God is the extent to which you give grace and offer forgiveness to the person who's hurt you the most and deserves it the least."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"I don't mean to sound dismissive. I don't know what was done to you. I don't understand the depth of the betrayal or the degree of pain you experienced. I don't know the nightmares that wake you up at night. But I know this: grace is greater."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Jesus made it clear that you can't receive God's grace and then refuse to give it to others."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"What do you do when you are hurt so badly nothing can be said or done to make it right? What do you do then? Some of you know exactly what I mean. You've been hurt badly enough that you are painfully aware there is nothing they could say and nothing they could do to make things right. That was exactly the position you were in with God when he extended his grace to you through Jesus. You could do nothing. You could say nothing. When there was no possibility of you making it right, God gave his only son."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"When you make grace dependent on the actions of the person who hurt you, you need to find a different word because it's not grace. With grace, the person doesn't fix the consequences of their sin; you take the consequences of their sin. That's not fair. It's not right. But it is exactly what Jesus did for you."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"If you refuse to forgive and keep the person who sinned against you locked in a prison of your bitterness, guess who's paying? You are. You're the one losing sleep. You're the one whose stomach hurts. You're the one whose relationships are being infected by bitterness. You're the one whose closet is a wreck."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Stop thinking about what's been done to you, and start thinking about what's been done for you."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Every time the pain of what's been done to you gets triggered, intentionally start thinking about what God has done for you. Because what's been done for you is greater than what's been done to you."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"It's not always possible and sometimes it's not appropriate, but when forgiveness results in reconciliation it most accurately reflects God's grace and forgiveness towards us."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Our emotions can tie us up, hold us down, and have a way of choking our resolve to forgive. They are roadblocks that keep us from moving forward with forgiveness. It's time for some of us to grow up and do what we don't feel like doing. Instead of making this journey dependent on our emotions, or relying on our own resolve, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us clean out our closets and finally get rid of the anger and the bitterness that have piled up and kept us from making progress."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"When we live in grace, releasing doesn't mean giving up, it means giving it to God."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"We need to do what Jesus said to do. If we're going to forgive and let grace flow, we need to pray for our enemies. You may be at a place where you won't even consider doing what Jesus said to do, but I'd encourage you to remember it's also what Jesus did for you. He prayed for the people who put him on that cross."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"It makes it easier to forgive someone when you can have confidence that what they meant for evil God can work for good."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God is standing with you and offers you a grace that is not only greater than anything you have done but greater than anything that has been done to you."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God is a loving father you can lean on when you have no one else. No matter what you go through, you don't have to go through it alone."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"We are to forgive as God has forgiven us. The forgiveness we have received from God is the motivation, the mandate, and also the model of forgiveness we are to give. Once we have received his grace we are to let it flow freely from our lives."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Reconciliation requires forgiveness from the offended and repentance from the offender. It doesn't happen often, but it's a beautiful thing when it does."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God takes complaining personally, because complaining overlooks the greatness of grace we have received. It undermines the Good News of the gospel and ignores the generosity and faithfulness of God. This kind of complaining is offensive to God, because at its core complaining is blasphemous. It's a way of saying “I don't believe God is taking care of me. I don't believe he will keep his promises. I don't believe he can redeem what I'm going through.” When you strip it down, complaining is a refusal to trust God and acknowledge his grace in your life."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Complaining keeps us focused on what we wish was different rather than being thankful for what we have."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Complainers are going to complain. It doesn't matter how generous the provision or how thoughtful the gift, they will still find something to complain about. The more you complain the more you find something to complain about."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Like grace, complaining has a way of spreading. Complaining spreads from one person to another and can infect an entire community. It just takes one whiny family member, one negative neighbor, or a couple or critical church members for the community to become infected. Complaining is contagious because the person is pointing out to everyone else how things could be better."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Think about the most complaint-worthy thing in your life right now. Go ahead. Before you complain about it, consider what God's grace may be working to accomplish. What if God is going to take you through this thing and it's actually going to bring a blessing later?"
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"Sometimes we look back and realize that we were complaining about a blessing. God's grace was at work in our lives, but we were too busy grumbling to be grateful for it."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"My complete powerlessness was a necessary precondition to experiencing God's total power and presence."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"We live in a culture that celebrates strength and condemns weakness, but grace enables us to celebrate our weakness. When we celebrate our weakness, it opens the floodgates for grace to pour into our lives, it allows us to celebrate our weakness all the more."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"If God's power works best in weakness, then recognizing I don't have what it takes will enable you to receive God's grace, which enables you to celebrate your weakness, which makes room for more grace to pour into your life. You get caught up in a beautiful circle of grace."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"I have learned the weaker we are the more we need to lean on God; an the more we lean on God, the stronger we discover him to be."
― Joni Eareckson Tada
"This is how the grace of God works. There is always enough. However much emptiness you bring to him, that is how much grace he has to give you. The emptier we are, the more of his grace we can receive. The weaker we are, the more of his strength we can discover."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"You're never in a better position to experience God's grace than the moment you realize you don't have what it takes."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"When God is the author of your story, you can trust that his grace will have the final word. God's grace can redeem anything."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God doesn't waste our pain but rather can use it and work in it to call our hearts closer to him."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God's grace takes all the broken pieces of our lives and puts them together so that we look more like Jesus."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God is all-knowing and his knowledge isn't limited to a linear timeline. He lives outside of time and space and sees everything at once. He not only knows everything that will happen as if it already has happened. You'll never hear God say, “Wow, I didn't see that coming.” And in his foreknowledge, he knows everything, good or bad, pleasurable or painful, that will ever happen to you."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God's grace to us in our pain is that our pain is not without purpose. God can work through it to make us more like Jesus."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"I know when you're going through suffering or you're living with pain it may seem that God, who is all-powerful, should do something to help. Consider the possibility that God in his grace is helping. Sometimes grace hurts so that it can help."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"He is at work within us to make us more like Jesus. It may not make any sense now, but just keep reading. In some cases we'll have to keep reading all the way into eternity. The tension between “Life is hard” and “God is good” won't be fully reconciled until we are with him in heaven. But from the perspective of heaven we will finally be able to see the greatness of God's grace."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
"God will bring good out of your bad. And even if you can't currently see how God might be drawing you closer or getting glory form your pain, you still need to remember: you're in the middle. This isn't the end of your story. Just keep reading. Grace will have the final word."
― Kyle Idleman - Grace Is Greater: God's Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story
0 comments: