Philip Yancey quotes - page 2

Never do I see Jesus lecturing people on the need to accept blindness or lameness as an expression of God's secret will; rather, he healed them. (Philip Yancey)
In no other arena is the church at greater risk of losing its calling than in the public square. View quote
Philip Yancey
It's too bad prayer comes bundled in a package of 'spiritual disciplines.' Really, we should see prayer as a spiritual privilege. We don't do it as a callisthenic exercise to gain points with God; we do it, because it is good for us in every way. View quote
Philip Yancey
You are free to reject God. Make sure that you're really rejecting God, not some caricature of God that the church has shown you. But I, one, respect a God who not only allows us to reject Him but includes the arguments we can use against Him in the Bible. I respect that. View quote
Philip Yancey
Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory. View quote
Philip Yancey
I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse. View quote
Philip Yancey
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. View quote
Philip Yancey
When suffering happens, it forces us to confront life in a different way than we normally do. View quote
Philip Yancey
I have come to know a God of compassion and mercy and love. View quote
Philip Yancey
For me, prayer is not so much me setting out a shopping list of requests for God to consider as it is a way of 'keeping company with God.' View quote
Philip Yancey
People who think they are free eventually end up slaves to their own desires, and those who give their freedom away to the only One you can trust with that freedom eventually get it back. (Philip Yancey)
Parents learn the uses of power and its limits. They can insist on certain outward behavior but cannot change inner attitudes. They can require obedience but not goodness - and certainly not love. View quote
Philip Yancey
The self-sacrificing, servant aspect of the Christian life has many parallels to parenthood. View quote
Philip Yancey
Most observers understand the difference between a committed Christian who accepts Jesus as a model for living and a 'cultural Christian' who happens to live in a nation with a Christian heritage. Most Muslims do not. View quote
Philip Yancey
Most of the great books on prayer are written by 'experts' - monks, missionaries, mystics, saints. I've read scores of them, and mainly they make me feel guilty. View quote
Philip Yancey
People instinctively know the difference between something done with a profit motive and something done with a love motive. View quote
Philip Yancey
Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace. Light only gets in through the cracks. View quote
Philip Yancey
If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge. View quote
Philip Yancey
We do well to remember that the Bible has far more to say about how to live during the journey than about the ultimate destination. View quote
Philip Yancey
Jesus never met a disease he could not cure, a birth defect he could not reverse, a demon he could not exorcise. But he did meet skeptics he could not convince and sinners he could not convert. Forgiveness of sins requires an act of will on the receiver's part, and some who heard Jesus' strongest words about grace and forgiveness turned away unrepentant. View quote
Philip Yancey
Jesus tended to honor the losers of this world, not the winners. Our modern culture extravagantly rewards beauty, athletic skill, wealth, and artistic achievement, qualities which seemed to impress Jesus not at all. (Philip Yancey)
Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: You become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible's astounding words about God's love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees? View quote
Philip Yancey
Some things just have to be believed to be seen. View quote
Philip Yancey
We, Jesus' followers, are the agents assigned to carry out God's will on earth. Too easily we expect God to do something for us when instead God wants to do it through us. View quote
Philip Yancey
I go to church as an expression of my need for God and for God's family. View quote
Philip Yancey