Quotes from Mark Batterson

answer our prayers isn't that we aren't praying hard enough; the reason, more often than not, is that we aren't willing to work hard enough. Praying hard is synonymous with working hard. Think of praying hard and working hard as concentric circles. It's the way we double-circle our dreams and His promises. There comes a moment, after you have prayed through, when you have to start doing something about it. You have to take a step of faith, and

La oración consiste en pedirle a Dios que haga algo, tiempo futuro; la alabanza consiste en creer que Dios ya lo ha hecho, tiempo pasado.

Instead of exclusively focusing on what's wrong and trying to fix it, you identify what's right and try to replicate it. Appreciative inquiry is playing to people's strengths. It's catching people doing things right. It's celebrating what you want to see more of. And it's bragging about people behind their backs.

We fixate on sins of commission: Don't do this, don't do that—and you're OK. But that is holiness by subtraction. And it's more hypocrisy than holiness! It's the sins of omission—what you would have, could have, and should have done — that break the heart of your heavenly Father.

No te sorprendas si Dios hace que reduzcas la velocidad. No te sorprendas si Dios se interpone. ¿Por qué? Porque te ama demasiado como para permitir que te hundas de cabeza en un problema. Hay algo que nos enseña la burra de Balán y es esto: Dios puede usar cualquier cosa para que se cumplan sus propósitos y puede hacerlo donde sea, en el momento que sea, de la manera que sea.

Pain can be a professor theology. Pain can be a marriage counselor. Pain can be a life coach. Nothing gets our full attention like pain. It breaks down false idols and purifies false motives. It reveals where we need to heal, where we need to grow. It refocuses priorities like nothing else. And pain ins part and parcel of God's sanctification process in our lives.

Tiene algo de diferente la oración? Es un hábito que se debe cultivar. Una disciplina que hay que desarrollar. Una habilidad que hace falta practicar. Y aunque no quiero reducir la oración fervorosa a llevar la cuenta del tiempo que se pasa en ella, si quieres llegar a ser un experto en ella, es posible que te lleve diez mil horas. Una cosa sí sé con toda seguridad: mientras más grande es el sueño, más ardientemente tendrás que orar.

if God doesn't answer the way you want, you still need to praise through. That is when it's most difficult to praise God, but that is also when our praise is most pure and most pleasing to God.

Dios no hace milagros para satisfacer nuestros caprichos egoístas. Dios hace milagros por una razón, y solo por esa razón: porque quiere dar a conocer su gloria. Nosotros solo tenemos la suerte de ser sus beneficiarios.

The Bible wasn't meant merely to be read. It was meant to be prayed through, meditated on, and lived out. If all you do is read it, all you've done is audit the Word of God. And you don't get credit for an audit. You've simply been educated beyond the level of your obedience.

The same is true spiritually. Until kids get into the driver's seat, they won't know how to get anywhere. What do I mean? You can pray for them their entire lives, but if you never let them pray, they're just along for the ride. They won't know how to get anywhere in prayer.

Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life.

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 CORINTHIANS 10:5

Twenty years later, Diana Nyad would attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. She swam seventy-eight miles in forty-two hours, but strong winds stopped her short of her goal.

Everybody wants a miracle; we just don't want to be in a situation where we need one. You can't have one without the other. Sometimes what we perceive as our problem is really God setting us up to do something miraculous in our lives. It's about training ourselves to see those problems as opportunities so God can intervene.

Our normal is so subnormal that normal seems radical.

You can leave the Bible on your bedside table untouched. You can ignore desires, dreams, doors, promptings and people. But you can't ignore pain, can you?

the God who gives the vision is the same God who makes provision.

Preaching may move the hearts of men, but praying moves the heart of God.

God is setting you up! He is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. And His angels are our advance team! Each trip around the sun has been carefully choreographed for us by the Creator of the universe. We just need to take His cues.

At the end of our lives, our greatest regrets will be the God-ordained opportunities we left on the table, the God-given passions we didn't pursue, and the God-sized dreams we didn't go after because we let fear dictate our decisions.

Defining moments. Intentional strategies. Adventurous living. Most of us spend our trips around the sun accumulating the wrong things. Possessions are a dime a dozen. Experiences are the currency of a life well lived.

Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the LORD;8 and He will give you the desires of your heart.

And it's often what we want to hear least that we need to hear most. Trust me, though, you want to hear what He has to say.