The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
I finished this book on December 16, 2016. I followed the author's recommendation and read only one chapter a day. This allowed me to really meditate and focus on each chapter and how it affected my life. I had this book on my shelf for several months, and kept putting off reading it. I'm not sure why exactly, but I suspect God was waiting for me to find myself in more difficult circumstances. The previous six months had been a journey of consistency and happiness, and seemingly life couldn't get any better. Then almost overnight a number of life changing events occurred. Fortunately my relationship with Jesus is strong, and growing stronger every day. So instead of falling in to depression and bitterness, I used these new circumstances to keep moving forward and to keep growing. Sure there was pain, disappointment, uncertainty, and a couple of setbacks along the way, but that's why I believe God kept this book on my bookshelf until November 4, 2016. This book was a 42-day journey that God used to not only get my attention, but to reignite my passion for living a Christ-centered life. This book has given me the clarity to stop wasting energy on past hurts and disappointments, and to start focusing my energy on strengthening my relationship with Christ, sharing my testimony with others, and choosing to be happy with all the blessings that God has given me.
"The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"You exist only because God wills that you exist. You were made by God and for God — and until you understand that, life will never make sense. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Guilt-driven people are manipulated by memories. They allow their past to control their future."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Those who hurt you in the past cannot continue to hurt you now unless you hold on to the pain through resentment. Your past is past! Nothing will change it. You are only hurting yourself with your bitterness."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"It is impossible to do everything people want you to do. You have just enough time to do God's will. If you can't get it all done, it means you're trying to do more than God intended for you to do."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Your relationship to God on earth will determine your relationship to him in eternity. If you learn to love and trust God's Son, Jesus, you will be invited to spend the rest of eternity with him."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"When you fully comprehend that there is more to life than just here and now, and you realize that life is just preparation for eternity, you will begin to live differently. You will start living in light of eternity, and that will color how you handle every relationship, task, and circumstance."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test. You are always being tested. God constantly watches your response to people, problems, success, conflict, illness, disappointment, and even the weather."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"A very important test is how you act when you can't feel God's presence in your life. Sometimes God intentionally draws back, and we don't sense his closeness."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"The fact that earth is not our ultimate home explains why, as followers of Jesus, we experience difficulty, sorrow, and rejection in this world. It also explains why some of God's promises seem unfulfilled, some prayers seem unanswered, and some circumstances seem unfair. This is not the end of the story. In order to keep us from becoming too attached to earth, God allows us to feel a significant amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life — longings that will never be fulfilled on this side of eternity. We're not completely happy here because we're not supposed to be! Earth is not our final home; we were created for something better."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"It is your responsibility to learn how to love as God does, because God is love, and it honors him."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Living the rest of your life for the glory of God will require a change in your priorities, your schedule, your relationships, and everything else. It will sometimes mean choosing a difficult path instead of an easy one."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Trusting God completely means having faith that he knows what is best for your life. You expect him to keep his promises, help you with problems, and do the impossible when necessary."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God doesn't owe you an explanation or reason for everything he asks you to do. Understanding can wait, but obedience can't. Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions. In fact, you will never understand some commands until you obey them first. Obedience unlocks understanding."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"You know you're surrendered to God when you rely on God to work things out instead of trying to manipulate others, force your agenda, and control the situation. You let go and let God work."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Sometimes it takes years, but eventually you discover that the greatest hindrance to God's blessing in your life is not others, it is yourself — your self-will, stubborn pride, and personal ambition. You cannot fulfill God's purpose for your life while focusing on your own plans."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"It is impossible to be God's friend apart from knowing what he says. You can't love God unless you know him, and you can't know him without knowing his Word."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"If you want a deeper, more intimate connection with God you must learn to honestly share your feelings with him, trust him when he asks you to do something, learn to care about what he cares about, and desire his friendship more than anything else."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God doesn't expect you to be perfect, but he does insist on complete honesty."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Pain is the fuel of passion — it energizes us with an intensity to change that we don't normally possess."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God can handle your doubt, anger, fear, grief, confusion, and questions."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Jesus gave up everything so you could have everything. He died so you could live forever. That alone is worthy of your continual thanks and praise. Never again should you wonder what you have to be thankful for."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God wants you to be in regular, close fellowship with other believers so you can develop the skill of loving. Love cannot be learned in isolation. You have to be around people — irritating, imperfect, frustrating people."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Being authentic requires both courage and humility. It means facing our fear of exposure, rejection, and being hurt again. Why would anyone take such a risk? Because it is the only way to grow spiritually and be emotionally healthy."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God's mercy to us is the motivation for showing mercy to others. Remember, you will never be asked to forgive someone else more than God has already forgiven you. Whenever you are hurt by someone, you have a choice to make. Will I use my energy and emotions for retaliation or for resolution? You can't do both."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Forgiveness must be immediate, whether or not a person asks for it. Trust must be rebuilt over time. Trust requires a track record. If someone hurts you repeatedly, you are commanded by God to forgive them instantly, but you are not expected to trust them immediately, and you are not expected to continue allowing them to hurt you. They must prove they have changed over time."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"While it is much easier to remain silent when others around us are harming themselves or others with a sinful pattern, it is not the loving thing to do. Most people have no one in their lives who loves them enough to tell them the truth (even when it's painful), so they continue in self-destructive ways."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Most conflict is rooted in unmet needs. Some of these needs can only be met by God. When you expect anyone — a friend, a spouse, boss, or family member — to meet a need that only God can fulfill, you are setting yourself up for disappointment and bitterness. No one can meet all of your needs except God."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Patience comes from wisdom, and wisdom comes from hearing the perspective of others."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"As believers we share one Lord, one body, one purpose, one Father, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one love. We share the same salvation, the same life, and the same future — factors far more important than any differences we could enumerate. These are the issues, not our personal differences, that we should concentrate on."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God's ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God's Word provides the truth we need to grow, God's people provide the support we need to grow, and circumstances provide the environment we need to practice Christlikeness."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Spiritual maturity is neither instant nor automatic; it is a gradual, progressive development that will take the rest of your life."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Change always starts first in your mind. The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Christianity is not a religion or a philosophy, but a relationship and a lifestyle. The core of that lifestyle is thinking of others, as Jesus did, instead of ourselves."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"The Bible must always have the first and last word in my life."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days — when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you're out of options, when the pain is great — and you turn to God alone. It is during suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest-to-God prayers. When we're in pain, we don't have the energy for superficial prayers."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"You will never know that God is all you need until God is all you've got."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Your circumstances are temporary, but your character will last forever."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through. That includes loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection, and many other problems."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"You know you are maturing when you begin to see the hand of God in the random, baffling, and seemingly pointless circumstances of life."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"On the path to spiritual maturity, even temptation becomes a stepping-stone rather than a stumbling block when you realize that it is just as much an occasion to do the right thing as it is to do the wrong thing. Temptation simply provides the choice."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God develops the fruit of the Spirit in your life by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you're tempted to express the exact opposite quality!"
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Happiness depends on external circumstances, but joy is based on your relationship to God."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"God's love is everlasting, and his patience endures forever."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"The more you fight a feeling, the more it consumes and controls you. You strengthen it every time you think it."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"The battle for sin is won or lost in your mind."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"To reduce temptation, keep your mind occupied with God's Word and other good thoughts."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Some problems are too ingrained, too habitual, and too big to solve on your own. You need a small group or an accountability partner who will encourage you, support you, pray for you, love you unconditionally, and hold you accountable. Then you can do the same for them."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss; and there is no loss without pain."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Remember that God is never in a hurry, but he is always on time. He will use your entire lifetime to prepare you for your role in eternity."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"We don't serve God out of guilt or fear or even duty, but out of joy, and deep gratitude for what he's done for us. We owe him our lives. Through salvation our past has been forgiven, our present is given meaning, and our future is secured."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"It is not enough to keep learning more and more. We must act on what we know and practice what we claim to believe."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"The very experiences that you have resented or regretted most in life — the ones you've wanted to hide and forget — are the experiences God wants to use to help others. They are your ministry! For God to use your painful experiences, you must be willing to share them. You have to stop covering them up, and you must honestly admit your faults, failures, and fears."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can."
― John Wesley
"When we stop focusing on our own needs, we become aware of the needs around us."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"You are the only Christian some people will ever know, and your mission is to share Jesus with them."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Nothing else you do will ever matter as much as helping people establish an eternal relationship with God."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"If you want to be used by God, you must care about what God cares about; what he cares about most is the redemption of the people he made. He wants his lost children found! Nothing matters more to God; the Cross proves that."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"While it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser to learn from the experiences of others. There isn't enough time to learn everything in life by trial and error. We must learn from the life lessons of one another."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"The Good News is that when we trust God's grace to save us through what Jesus did, our sins are forgiven, we get a purpose for living, and we are promised a future home in heaven."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"The eternal salvation of a single soul is more important than anything else you will ever achieve in life."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Prayer is the most important tool for your mission in the world. People may refuse our love or reject our message, but they are defenseless against our prayers."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Once you know what God wants you to do, the blessing comes in actually doing it."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Worry is the warning light that God has been shoved to the sideline. The moment you put him back at the center, you will have peace again."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Don't get discouraged and give up when you stumble. It takes a lifetime to build Christlike character."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"If you are a parent, part of your mission is to raise your children to know Christ, to help them understand his purposes for their lives, and to send them out on their mission in the world."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Happiness is a choice. You are as happy as you choose to be."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Without risk-taking, my faith cannot be stretched and developed."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Never allow anyone else to stand in the way of your relationship to Christ."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"Getting to know Jesus personally and intimately can free you from many things: the burden of guilt, the poison of resentment, the stress of overwork, the pressure of materialism, the habits of addiction, and the fear of death. But one of the greatest freedoms Jesus offers is being liberated from the fear of disapproval. That is a key to peace of mind."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"If you are looking to any human being to either make you happy or keep you happy, you are going to be disappointed eventually. No human being has the capacity to meet all your needs and keep you constantly happy. Only God can meet all your needs. No person has the ability to give you all the security, approval, acceptance, and love you need, regardless of what they may promise you. If you expect them to meet needs that only God can meet, you are being unfair to them, you are setting them up for failure, and you are setting yourself up to become bitter."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
"If what I do pleases God, it is always the right thing to do, and I can stop worrying about everyone else's reactions. This dramatically simplifies life."
― Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
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