Quotes from Rick Warren

I don't know all the keys to success, but one key to failure is to try to please everyone. Being controlled by the opinions of others is a guaranteed way to miss God's purposes for your life.

Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. You are alive because God wanted to create you! The Bible says, "The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me.

There is no greater antidepressant than communication and fellowship with God.

He wants to be included in every activity, every conversation, every problem, and even every thought.

Pain is the fuel of passion — it energizes us with an intensity to change that we don't normally possess. C. S. Lewis said, "Pain is God's megaphone." It is God's way of arousing us from spiritual lethargy. Your problems are not punishment; they are wake-up calls from a loving God. God is not mad at you; he's mad about you, and he will do whatever it takes to bring you back into fellowship with him.

That is why the key to long-lasting success is to develop habits — new, positive habits that replace our self-defeating behaviors.

Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days - when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you're out of options, when the pain is great - and you turn to God alone.

God was thinking of you even before he made the world. In fact, that's why he created it! God designed this planet's environment just so we could live in it. We are the focus of his love and the most valuable of all his creation.

The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God.

Genuine surrender says, "Father, if this problem, pain, sickness, or circumstance is needed to fulfill your purpose and glory in my life or in another's, please don't take it away." This level of maturity does not come easy.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. -Rick Warren

To be a friend of God, you must care about all the people around you whom God cares about. Friends of God tell their friends about God.