Quotes from Philip Yancey

As a nonparent, I stand in awe of parents.

My mother believed he would be healed. She counted on God, and the worst thing happened. The impact of that error in theology, in thinking, impacted my life from the very beginning.

Whatever makes us feel superior to other people, whatever tempts us to convey a sense of superiority, that is the gravity of our sinful nature, not grace.

For me, the world of nature bears spectacular witness to the imaginative genius of our Creator.

A philosophy may explain difficult things, but has no power to change them. The gospel, the story of Jesus' life, promises change.

God must love art because most of the Bible is expressed in the form of story or poetry.

At the heart of the gospel is a God who deliberately surrenders to the wild, irresistable power of love.

In a nutshell, the Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22 tells the story of a God reckless with desire to get his family back.

In the stories of extravagant grace given to us by Jesus, there are no loopholes disqualifying us from God's love.

When I am tempted to complain about God's lack of presence, I remind myself that God has much more reason to complain about my lack of presence.

I go to church as an expression of my need for God and for God's family.

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.

Rather, God has commissioned us as agents of intervention in the midst of a hostile and broken world.

God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are.

Grace is a free gift of God, but to receive a gift you must have open hands.

Faith in God offers no insurance against tragedy.

I do not get to know God and then do His will. I get to know Him by doing His will.

Jesus did not give the parables to teach us how to live. He gave them, I believe, to correct our notions about who God is and who God loves.

We're concerned with how things turn out; God seems more concerned with how we turn out.

By focusing too myopically on what we want God to do on our behalf, we may miss the significance of what he has already done.

At Calvary, God accepted his own unbreakable terms of justice.

Prayer is a declaration of dependence upon God.

Some who attempt prayer never have the sense of anyone listening on the other end. They blame themselves for doing it wrong.... Prayer requires the faith to believe that God listens.

True faith does not so much attempt to manipulate God to do our will as it does to position us to do his will.