Quotes from Adam Hamilton

The second thing I have come to understand is that God will not suspend another's free will to answer my prayers. I can pray for someone to come to faith in Christ or buy my house or love me, but I can't expect God to make someone do these things.

Suffering can either destroy us, or it can add meaning to our life.

The devil can't make you do anything! Resistance is not futile. You can overcome temptation. Where

God will not violate another's free will in response to my prayer.

God does not bring unjust suffering upon God's children. But God will, however, force such things to serve God's good purposes. God will walk with us through the fires and the floodwaters. And God promises that "the present suffering is nothing compared to the coming glory that is going to be revealed to us

I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

It's not that God won't give you more than you can handle, but that God will help you handle all that you've been given. This

But the tree represents the freedom that God gives human beings to choose God's way or another way. God deemed the ability to choose to be an essential part of human existence.

We share the gospel with others because we believe the gospel is not just about heaven, but about having life even here on earth.

Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. Hebrews 13:5-6

We haven't stopped praying for you and asking for you to be filled with the knowledge of God's will, . . . so that you can live lives that are worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way: by producing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. (COLOSSIANS 1:9-10 CEB)

we follow Jesus because we believe that his life, death, resurrection, and teachings offer us the truth about life, strength for the journey, and hope in the face of despair. Following him doesn't change our life situation, but it does change how we look at it and how we live in it.

follow Jesus, not because I think he's going to make me rich or keep bad things from happening to me. I follow him because I believe that in his life he shows me who God is. In his teachings he shows me how to live. In his death he shows me mercy. And in his resurrection he shows me hope. That's why I follow him.

Sometimes God asks us to be with people we don't want to be with, to go to places we don't want to go to, and to do things we don't want to do.

Christmas is not about how much you buy or what you eat or whom you visit. It is about your willingness to say, with Mary, "Here am I, Lord. Use me according to your will.

When I think of this story, I can't help but think of the many immigrants, both legal and illegal, who flee to the United States either in fear for their lives in their home country, or in hopes of a better future. Jesus was a child taken into Egypt as an alien, a refugee.

God will bring good from evil, and not even death can separate us from his love.

Why didn't God do anything to stop it? Here is God's answer: "I did do something. I sent Jesus to be the light so you could see what to do. He came to bring good news to the poor, to set the prisoners free, and to unfasten every yoke that burdens your fellow children and holds them down.

Invite God to use your disappointments to accomplish God's purposes.

We do our best to hear from God, but we are all a bit spiritually hard of hearing. Our own convictions sometimes get intermingled with what we believe God is saying to us. None of us knows everything. We're all shaped by our environment and limited in our understanding. We do our best to hear from God, but we hear God through our individual filters, our preconceived ideas and convictions. This

Hope is a decision we make, a choice to believe that God can take the adversity, the disappointment, the heartache, and the pain of our journeys and use these to accomplish his purposes.

Our task in worship is to prepare ourselves spiritually to hear the Spirit speak, sometimes despite the music and preaching.

understood it. What the missionaries brought was the good news of Jesus. Paul writes of this distinction in Romans 2 and offers some interesting insights, noting that God will "give eternal life to those who look for glory, honor, and immortality based on their patient good work" (v. 7 CEB)

What if God, in giving us life, invites us to collaborate in writing the story of our lives?