Expect: The Believer
- They have a leak when it comes to hope. They seem incapable of holding on to a positive view of life. (pg. 91)
- The optimistic never see failure as personal, permanent, or pervasive, but others are constricted, paralyzed, or controlled by failures. (pg. 92)
- One of the most important characteristics of people who achieve the extraordinary is they live a life of expectation--they expect the good to happen; they internalize optimism. (pg. 92)
- "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, 'In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.' And, 'But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.'" (pg. 94)
- Of all the things that may change about you when you connect to God, here is one that should fill you with confidence--if you have lived your life running away, this is not who you are any longer. Where once we ran from problems, failures, hardship, danger, and challenges, we are now among those who thrive in the midst of them. (pg. 95)
- You recognize that the greatness within you can only emerge if you are willing to face your greatest challenges. (pg. 95)
- If you are in a relationship with the God who created you, no matter who you've been or what you've done or how many times you've messed up or failed or quit, you are no longer that person, no longer a part of the tribe that shrinks back. (pg. 95)
- What we really want God to do is be the calming presence in our life. We want God to bring some peace and stability. But soon you're saying, "Wait a minute, nobody told me that a relationship with God is like skiing downhill in the Swiss Alps as a beginner with no lessons!" (pg. 96)
- The way God changes your life is by changing you. (pg. 97)
- Wherever you made your mess, that's where you get to start cleaning it up. (pg. 97)
- "Transformation is the ability to get up in the morning and look in the mirror and like the person you are becoming." (pg. 98)
- Failure can become a state of being, as can despair. (pg. 99)
- We are called to emulate the lives of women and men who kept leaning into their future. (pg. 99)
- When you begin to live a life that integrates faith and hope, you begin to internalize optimism. (pg. 100)
- Faith is not the Christian version of a wish. It is not about speaking something into reality. Faith is different. Faith is about substance. It's about knowing what has not happened will certainly happen. Not because you will make it happen but because God has promised it will be so. (pg. 100)
- Faith is about conviction, while hope is about confidence. Faith grounds us in the certainty of God's faithfulness, and hope pulls us into the mystery of God's future. (pg. 100)
- People talk about faith as if it's a magical ingredient that impresses God and gives him a great idea of what he should do with our life. (pg.101)
- A lot of us think that faith is about impressing God with our ideas or coming up with these huge plans. (pg.102)
- God isn't lacking in vision. But there does seem to be a shortage of people willing to dream as big as God. Faith isn't about convincing God to go big but posturing ourselves to join God in a life bigger than we are and bigger than our dreams. (pg. 103)
- Faith is about confidence in God's character, that he is good and true and beautiful. (pg. 103)
- If nothing can stop God, then who can stop you when you are pursuing him and living for his purpose? (pg. 103)
- Faith pushes you to pursue a God-sized dream, and hope pulls and inspires you to never quit until it is a reality. (pg. 104)
- ...Abraham...had security and certainty, and God said, "I want you to give up everything you have, everything you know, and relinquish your security and certainty. I want you to expect more. And I want you to go with me on a journey to a place you have no idea where it is, no idea what it's going to be like, and I want you to move from being a settler to becoming a stranger and a wanderer." (pg. 105)
- I wonder if for many of us, the only thing stopping us from living the life God created us to live--the live of our dreams--is to let go of a life so good that it betrays the great. (pg. 106)
- We have confused comfort with peace, belief with faith, safety with wisdom, wealth with blessing, and existence with life. (pg. 106)
- The great challenge for many of us is that there will be times in our lives when God will say, "I have done all of this for you. i have provided for you tremendously, but I want you now to give that up for the life you were created to live. There's more than this." It is very likely that the life God has given you as a gift today is the very thing he will ask of you as a sacrifice tomorrow. (pg. 108)
- Sometimes God does so much in our lives that when he wants to work in a new way we resist, ironically, because we have become so attached to all he has brought to us. What can happen is that the things God has blessed us with become an anchor that keeps us grounded ashore rather than launching us out into his dream for us. (pg. 109-110)
- The unknown with God is always better than the known without him. (pg. 110)
- He (God) never intended all of our lives to be the same. God's promise is not that everything will go well for us but that our lives will be well lived. (pg. 112)
- A life of expectation sometimes brings great public success, but sometimes God glorifies himself and finds the greatest honor from our lives when we are willing to fail in the eyes of others simply by doing what is right even if it means losing our perceived value to the world. (pg. 112)
- God is not limited to your success and failure. God is glorified when you simply live your life for the right things, whether you succeed or fail. (pg. 113)
- Are you a prisoner to the opinion of others, or are you willing to allow God to create the life of your dreams? Would you choose success in the eyes of others or failure that brings your life its greatest meaning? (pg. 113)
- A life of expectation isn't so much about what you expect out of life but what you put into it. The former is about feeling entitled; the latter about living fully engaged. (pg. 113)
- ...how long you live does not reflect how well you live. The real question is, were you alive when you died? (pg. 114)
- Abel was murdered, but Cain could not kill his dreams. It was Cain who, though he remained alive, was trapped in a nightmare. (pg. 115)
- To live wide awake is not about finding a way around the suffering or difficulties of life. It is stepping into the life God has for you. (pg. 115)
- Some of us need to move past looking to God for only the forgiveness of our sins, and begin to live lives that pursue God and to live in his pleasure. (pg. 115-116)
- Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more. God took him away. Be careful getting too close to God; you may not be here tomorrow. (pg. 116)
- Your faith, your religion or spirituality, is not supposed to serve as a way to get God off your back. It's not supposed to be a way to leverage your bets so that maybe you can get to heaven when you die. It's not supposed to be just about some way to relieve your guilt and shame. Dreaming with your eyes open is about living life to the fullest and enjoying God and having him enjoy you. It's about getting God into your soul, your heart, and your head, and letting him show you the dreams and plans he has for your life. When an infinite God comes to dwell in a finite being, dangerously beautiful things begin to happen. It is here where you become indomitable. The fire within you becomes an eternal flame that cannot be put out. (pg. 116-117)
- ...what can you do when your life is filled with expectation and you are delusional enough to believe that you have the power to change things? (pg. 118)
- ...research reveals that the people most rooted or grounded in reality are those who could be considered depressed. Reality is really overrated; it makes you a pessimist. To be an optimist you must be a dreamer. You must awaken the hero within you that sees beyond the problem to the promise. I call this hero the Believer. (pg. 118-119)
- Maybe our marriages would get better if we kept pursuing our spouses. (pg. 119)
- Little by little we begin to live in fear. We begin to be haunted by doubt. We begin to settle for less. (pg. 119)
- Others need to see to believe. You see because you believe. (pg. 119)
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