Quotes from Edward Welch

i\in view of God's sovereign control, God will accomplish his purposes in our lives even when we make decisions we later regret.

with this? Do you live as if this is true? Let's keep going. The Bible isn't just about heaven and only for the by-and-by. It is gritty and real. It is about messed-up people and the way God pursues them. The Bible describes real life—with its ups and downs and our stubborn quests for independence—better than anything.

Worriers are visionaries minus the optimism.

We crave autonomy. Autonomy is closely linked to arrogance. They are both expressions of human pride, but autonomy suggests that we want to be separate from more than over. We want to establish the rules rather than submit to the lordship of the living God. This was the essence of Adam's original sin. We want to interpret the world according to our system of thought. We want to establish our own parallel universe, separate from God's.

Some hopeless people who anticipate only death cite Scripture that says "I desire to depart and be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23). But Christ is not what hopeless people really want. The God-talk is misleading. The goal of hopelessness is to end the suffering, and if God happens to be there when it happens, fine. But God's presence is not essential.

The desire is overwhelming. Why? Because there is availability without accountability.

The circumstances of life do not have the power to turn us away from Jesus or to make us love him more—those are the jurisdiction of the heart.

With our touch, Jesus becomes our scapegoat. In his touch, Jesus takes our sin and absorbs our shame (Psalm 69:9; Romans 15:3), and we receive his righteousness. If you prefer symmetry in your relationships, in which you give a gift of similar value to the one you receive, you have not yet touched Jesus.

Jesus freely placed your interest above his own. His desire was to elevate your status; in the process he lowered his own. He gave you the royal treatment: he works, you benefit. And you must accept this treatment.

Sin is not rational.

Only people who know they have burdens can be delivered from them.

The details of how faith works in spiritual warfare are well known but easily forgotten.