Quotes from Max Lucado

p. 52 Blessings and burdens. Both can alarm-clock us out of slumber. Gifts stir homeward longings. So do struggles. Every homeless day carries us closer to the day our Father will come.

Don't get sucked into short-term thinking. Your struggles will not last forever, but you will.

The Spirit found me.

What you are to a paper airplane, God is to you. Take a sheet of paper and make one. Contrast yourself with your creation. Challenge it to a spelling contest. Who will win? Dare it to race you around the block. Who is faster? Invite the airplane to a game of one-on-one basketball. Will you not dominate the court?

14He brought them out of their gloom and darkness and broke their chains. 15Let them give thanks to the LORD for his love and for the miracles he does

I prayed for vitality and joy. Both returned.

Are you angry with God? Tell him. Disgusted with God? Let him know. Weary of telling people you feel fine when you don't? Tell the truth. My friends Thomas and Andrea Davidson did. A stray bullet snatched their fourteen-year-old son, Tyler, out of their lives. Tom writes:

8Whoever does not care for his own relatives, especially his own family members, has turned against the faith and is worse than someone who does not believe in God.

It may seem that the calamity sucked your life out to sea, but it hasn't. You still have your destiny.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may . . . grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. [ Ephesians 3:17—18 NIV

Think you have lost it all? You haven't. God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty-- never canceled, never rescinded (Rom. 11:29 MSG).

Breathing is automatic for us. We need air to live, but we don't think about the process of getting it as we go about our day. We just breathe. That's how our relationship with God should be. Automatic. We don't think about needing to talk to God. It just happens, all day long.