Quotes from Dallas Willard

Job's journey of faith moved from ritual to relationship. He began with what we may call the faith of propriety, moved through the faith of desperation, and finally arrived at the faith of sufficiency—the faith that says, regardless of what happens, "It doesn't matter. I have God, and that is all I need.

God's own "kingdom," or "rule," is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom.

This "world" is marked by three spiritual dynamics that John identifies as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16).

We do have an invitation to be a part of it, but if we refuse we only hurt ourselves.

Indeed, all human troubles come from thinking of God wrongly, which then means, thinking about ourselves wrongly.

Desire—wanting something that appears to be good for some purpose or pleasure.

Does Jesus only enable me to "make the cut" when I die? Or to know what to protest, or how to vote or agitate and organize? It is good to know that when I die all will be well, but is there any good news for life? If I had to choose, I would rather have a car that runs than good insurance on one that doesn't. Can I not have both?

The faith of desperation—trusting faith—digs in, holds on, clings tight, and says, "I don't care what's going to happen, I am holding on to God!

The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life.

The life without lack is known by those who have learned how to trust God in the moment of their need.

Egotism is pathological self-obsession, a reaction to anxiety about whether one really does count. It is a form of acute selfconsciousness and can be prevented and healed only by the experience of being adequately loved. It is, indeed, a desperate response to frustration of the need we all have to count for something and be held to be irreplaceable, without price.

Search me, O God." "Let the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you." "Renew in me a right spirit." At a certain point my own "beyond that is within" (my heart) has been formed and I am then at its mercy. Only God can save me.