Quotes from Edward T. Welch

the culture with the most peace, money, and leisure is also the one with the most malignant sadness.

When I'm depressed, pain is my friend. I wallow in pain. It's what I am familiar with. I'll tell you that I hate my pain and that there is nothing good about it, but I still hold onto it. I'm so dead inside, so empty of any enthusiasm or hope. My pain reminds me that I'm alive. It allows me to be angry.

Obedience to Christ is not a burden to bear. Instead it points the way to being truly human—an unfettered conscience, an unhindered nearness to him, and the pleasure of his hospitality and protection.

When you are fully confident that your Father is just, you know that injustice will not prosper. You will not become angry when offenses are committed against you because you will leave it in his hands.

When the only one who has a right to be angry chooses love and service, when He considers the interests of others more important than His own and chooses humility–He changes everything (p. 55).

Suffering feels like our biggest problem and avoiding it like our greatest need—but we know that there is something more. Sin is actually our biggest problem, and rescue from it is our greatest need.

Isaiah himself was only more aware of his shame as it stood in contrast to the perfection and purity of the Lord. It brought him to despair at his predicament. But despair is not a bad thing when it compels us to trust in or be associated with God himself.

Shame is very much on display in Jesus' crucifixion. When he predicted his own death to his disciples, he made sure to explain that it would be infused with mocking, a public flogging, and spitting (Mark 10:33–34). Witness this hatred and rejection and it will change you.

Humans are needy by design. Will we abandon the myth of independence and seek God?

Worldly honor is passé. It is part of a fading kingdom. Honor in Christ is the only true honor.

God does not forgive you based on the quality of your confession or your resolve to be a better person. But you keep thinking otherwise. Your standard is what you would do to someone like yourself, and chances are that you would not let the incident pass quickly. God, however, forgives, for his own name's sake. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more (Isa. 43:25).

We aim to create our own psalms in which we (1) pour out our complaint to the Lord, (2) review God's promises and his faithfulness, (3) find our rest and comfort in Jesus, and (4) let others know that they, too, can find rest and comfort. Then, when we falter, we ask for help and do it all again.

To look to Christ to meet our perceived psychological needs is to Christianize our lusts. We are asking God to give us what we want, so we can feel better about ourselves, or so we can have more happiness, not holiness, in our lives.

Priests are the very offspring of God and share in his likeness. Our lineage is from heaven, which makes us hybrids of heaven and earth, though the scales tip in the direction of heaven. We are more connected to heaven than is the rest of creation. We are children priests or, since our Father is the king, we are royal priests who can enjoy his companionship as he actually enjoys ours.

The fastest way to bring a wrecking ball to our skewed interpretations is through confession.

Fear has given birth to extreme parenting. It looks like love, but it is love mingled with fear.

One thing I do know is that my helpers were qualified by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

When we recount with our community God's answers to our prayers, we are laying spiritual monuments that we hope will have more endurance than mere stones.

Selfcontrol is the skill of saying "no" to sinful desires, even when it hurts.

We are connected to things that have been forced on us, such as the sins of others

God has determined that run-of-the-mill people do most of his work—

The Holy One is not human. The triune God is not human. Don't limit God's character by your expectations of what a decent human king might do. You expect God to reject; he accepts. You expect him to turn away; he turns toward.

If the potential presence/arrival of another person can reveal the ungodliness in our behavior, how much more the coming of Christ himself?

Shame can be removed, and you can still be you. Despite your feeling that your destiny and shame's destiny are identical—that if shame no longer exists, you won't either—the reality is that you will be more you without shame.