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By focusing too myopically on what we want God to do on our behalf, we may miss the significance of what he has already done.

Philip Yancey

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Philip Yancey
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: November 4
Author
Journalist
Publisher
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
May
Done
Focusing
Behalf
Significance
Miss
Missing
Already

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Life with God is an individual matter, and general formulas do not easily apply.
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...to see that God does answer, in great things as well as small, the prayers of those who put their trust in Him will strengthen the faith of multitudes.
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One Harlem preacher likens us to the pink plastic spoons at Baskin Robbins: we give the world a foretaste of what lies ahead, the vision of the Biblical prophets. In a world gone astray we should be activity demonstrating here and now God's will for the planet.
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We grow up hungry for love, and in ways so deep as to remain unexpressed we long for our Maker to love us.
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As I read the Bible, it seems clear that God satisfies his eternal appetite by loving individual human beings. I imagine He views each halting step forward in my spiritual walk with the eagerness of a parent watching a child take the very first step.
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Power can do everything but the most important thing: it cannot control love.
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God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are.
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The Christian sees the world as a transitional home badly in need of rehab, and we are active agents in that project.
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God has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us.
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In the stories of extravagant grace given to us by Jesus, there are no loopholes disqualifying us from God's love.
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Christian faith is... basically about love and being loved and reconciliation. These things are so important, they're foundational and they can transform individuals, families.
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The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass.
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The shift in American society from admiring Christians to fearing and criticizing them provides an opportunity for self-reflection. How have we been presenting the message we believe in? Might there be a more grace-filled way?
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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.
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The proof of spiritual maturity is not how pure you are but awareness of your impurity. That very awareness opens the door to grace.
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Prayer is to the skeptic a delusion, a waste of time. To the believer it represents perhaps the most important use of time.
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Release what is good.
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Goodness cannot be imposed externally, from the top down it must grow internally, from the bottom up.
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The promise of pleasures so alluring that we may devote our lives to their pursuit, and then the haunting realization that these pleasures ultimately do not satisfy.
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I never seeĀ God. I seldom run into visual clues that remind me of God unless I am looking. The act of looking, the pursuit itself, makes possible the encounter. For this reason, Christianity has always insisted that trust and obedience come first, and knowledge follows.
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