Quotes from John Eldredge

And the truth is, quite often God's desire for us will run against the prevailing current. 'Get off the next exit.' His guidance sometimes (often?) seems counter-intuitive.

There is a life you can love, but it takes courage, perseverance, and a little cunning to get there. It takes a warrior.

And so the great battle begins in earnest: the battle for your heart, the battle to find a life worth living, the battle not to lose heart as you find a life worth living.

First off, we must be confident that God wants to give us more of himself.

Whatever isn't born out of deep confidence in God is sin. That includes our personality and our approach to life.

Lest we despair, God has given us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT) and to be specific, it includes the restoration of every precious day of our lives. Heaven is not a memory wipe. it is the time and capacity to truly relish the story of our lives, to see the hand of God in it all (how many times angels rescued you), to be vindicated, and even rewarded.

Four times in this passage alone Jesus repeats himself, to make it perfectly clear: his sheep hear his voice. We are meant to hear the voice of God. This is one of the lost treasures of Christianity—an intimate, conversational relationship with God is available, and is meant to be normal.

When we recover the humanity of Jesus, it helps us find him in the messy parts of our own humanity, of humanity at large. We discover for ourselves the vast richness and beauty of his heart. If his heart is such, in whose image we are made and are being remade, might our own hearts one day be so rich?

There is nothing so inspiring to a man as a beautiful woman.

Jesus said, "Do not throw your pearls to pigs" (Matt. 7:6). By this we don't think he was calling some people pigs. He was saying, "Look—be careful that you do not give something precious to someone who, at best, cannot recognize its beauty, or at worst, will trample on it." Consider your feminine heart and beauty your treasure, your pearls.

You are the son of a kind, strong, and engaged Father, a Father wise enough to guide you in the Way, generous enough to provide for your journey. His first act of provision happened before you were even born, when he rescued you through the life, death, and resurrection of our elder brother, Jesus of Nazareth. Then he called you to himself—perhaps is calling you even now—to come home to him through faith in Christ.

Finally, we choose to believe it's happening.

You make no agreements with whatever the temptation or accusation is.

Jesus, I give my heart to your kingdom; I am made for your kingdom and nothing else will do.

Life will provide a thousand sessions for raising the warrior God calls you to be. Turn your radar on during the day, and intentionally don't take the path of least resistance.

Nothing is truly lost. This is going to come back to me; this will be in one of my treasure chests Jesus will restore to me.

That's the key word—engage. Choose to engage and your weary warrior wakes up.

Most of us are faking our way through life. We pick only those battles we are sure to win, only those adventures we are sure to handle, only those beauties we are sure to rescue.

It then occurred to me that after God made all this, he pronounced it good, for heaven's sake. It's his way of letting us know he rather prefers adventure, danger, risk, the element of surprise. This whole creation is unapologetically wild. God loves it that way.

that's exactly what we do to find more of God—we practice belief. We exercise it.

most men have a hard time sustaining any sort of devotional life because it has no vital connection to recovering and protecting their strength; it feels about as important as flossing. But if you saw your life as a great battle and you knew you needed time with God for your very survival, you would do it.

To be clear, I am not listening for an audible voice, as I would if you and I were talking. I am listening for his gentle voice within, for that is where Jesus dwells—within our very hearts (Eph. 3:17).

The most essential gift you have to give is yourself.

And he wants you to be utterly yourself, with him.