A collection of thought-provoking, encouraging, enlightening, and inspiring quotes from various sources that I have come across this past week!
“We don’t need to protect God’s ability or capability by praying small prayers. God is trying to break us out of our small dreams, small asks, and small desires to pull us up to His big dreams, big answers, and big desires.”
— in her Proverbs 31 devotional When I Just Can’t Do It All!
“But that’s precisely why we must always check the wisdom this world offers against the wisdom of God. Any worldly wisdom that holds us back from God isn’t really wisdom.”
—Michelle Myers via the swHw app (swHw = She Works His Way)
The following are all from the book Chasing Cupcakes and are some of my favorites thus far in the book:
“Give your energy to the simplest version of the solution.”
“The problem isn’t limiting your solutions. Your attachment to the problem is what’s limiting your solutions.”
(Ask yourself) “What is the behavior I wish I would effortlessly demonstrate in this situation? With that question I am never stuck. I can never say that I don’t know where to start or how to change. The answer to that question is my compass. It gives me my solution. It lights the path to my new reputation.”
“What follows “I am,” follows you.” (Kaci’s commentary: what she is saying is that what follows any thought or statement that begins with “I am” is what will perpetuate in your life. Be careful what follows “I am” in your mind and your words. Rewrote your narrative when things don’t align with your goals or with God’s truth. See this post for more).
—Elizabeth Benton in Chasing Cupcakes
“The point is that *something* isn’t nothing, and thinking that you need to be “all in” with some perfect workout plan, or else “it doesn’t count” is a losing mentality.
It’s the all-or-nothing mentality…it’s the shortest path to giving up.”—Jill Coleman in her email titled These fitness myths need to die⚰️
“But she wasn’t seeking changed behavior, she was seeking a changed heart.We can all change our behavior temporarily. We can fool others, and even ourselves, into thinking we are doing better. But Jesus never set out to change behavior; He set out to change our hearts.”
“This is what is so profound about what my wife did: By waking up every night and begging God to change my heart, she was humbly admitting she wasn’t the one in control. She recognized she doesn’t possess the power to change hearts, so she went before the One who does.” (Kaci’s commentary: I love the way he put it—that prayer is ultimately about humbly admitting we are not in control. That is why it works. That is why the Lord honors it. We don’t have the power to change but we go before the One Who does).
— via his Proverbs 31 devotional titled Fighting for More Than Changed Behavior In Your Husband
“What we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding. This is a harsh reality. But… If we don’t go after what we want, we will never get it. If we don’t ask the right questions, we will always get the wrong answers. If we don’t take a step forward, we are always going to be standing in the same exact place.
Life is a journey comprised of small steps. The key is to take these steps, every single day.
Self-discipline is a skill. It is the ability to focus and overcome distractions. It involves acting according to what you know is right instead of how you feel in the moment (perhaps tired or lazy). It typically requires sacrificing immediate pleasure and excitement for what matters most in life.
How do you get started with building a healthy ritual of self-discipline when you have so many changes to make? You start small. Very small.”
—Angel Chernoff (of Marc and Angel Hack Life) via her email titled One Insanely Popular Way to Waste a Life (And How to Avoid It)…
“You know yourself mostly by your thoughts. Everyone else in the world knows you only by your actions. Remember this when you feel misunderstood. You have to do or say something for others to know how you feel.”
“Habits will form whether you want them or not. Whatever you repeat, you reinforce.”
—James Clear in his email newsletter
“The power of the devil is deception. The power of the devil is not overpowering.”
“When we allow Faith to be defined by feelings we will always be confused.”
—Tony Evans in the Armor of God sermon series
Note: This is the MOST comprehensive and practically applicable, and powerful message I have EVER heard on the Armor of God, Spiritual warfare, and the nature of the impact the Spiritual and Physical realms have on one another. I have access through Right Now media, but if you don’t you can buy it on his site here. Worth EVERY penny. I have not googled to see if there is a copy on YouTube for free. It is a 7 part series. Each is about 45 minutes long.
“When we embrace good things in our lives past the designated time, we smother the goodness and hinder our own growth. When we let go of each season at the right time, we can joyfully celebrate the new season God gives us.
When we look back, we can be tempted to see only the good. But the truth is, each season has its own trials. These trials are like weights that strengthen our spiritual muscles for future seasons.
God wants to build our faith through each season. If we want our faith to grow, we can’t stay stuck in the past. We can embrace transitions as they arrive and learn to celebrate the changes.”
— via her Proverbs 32 devotional titled Time to Celebrate a New Season
“But the purpose of our life is not to achieve, but instead to become more like Christ. Understanding the truth and living out the fact that God doesn’t just give us things out of love, but that He is good enough to GIVE us what we really need to change – this is ultimately how people will see God in us; God changing us in the trial, instead of God rescuing us from the trial.”
—Emily Copeland swHw app (swHw = She Works His Way) August 19th 2019
“If we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant, quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms.
In the words of Thoreau, “for every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.” We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and behaviors flow.”
—Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
|Kaci
Reader Questions:
1/ Do any of these resonate with you?
2/ What’s the best quote you came across this week?
What Can Be Gained | «Small Wins Create Massive Success» 