God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character. In fact, he depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible.
– Rick Warren
Character | The Bible | Circumstances
The way you store up treasure in Heaven is by investing in getting people there.
– Rick Warren
Heaven | Evangelism
When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life.
– Rick Warren
Life
Through salvation our past has been forgiven, our present is given meaning, and out future is secured.
– Rick Warren
Salvation | The Future
The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.
– Rick Warren
LoveTime
God specializes in giving people a fresh start.
– Rick Warren
Grace
Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test.
– Rick Warren
Character
The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.
– Rick Warren
Holiness
Every time you defeat a temptation, you become more like Jesus!
– Rick Warren
Temptation
Love leaves legacy. How you treated other people, not your wealth or accomplishments, is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth.
– Rick Warren
Love | Wealth
God is far more interested in what you are than who you are.
– Rick Warren
Character
God never does anything accidentally, and he never makes mistakes.
– Rick Warren
God
If you’re alive, there’s a purpose for your life.
– Rick Warren
Life
At most, you will live a hundred years on earth, but you will spend forever in eternity.
– Rick Warren
Eternity
The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.
– Rick Warren
Life
Passion drives perfection.
– Rick Warren
Inspiration | Passion
What happens outwardly in your life is not as important as what happens inside you. Your circumstances are temporary, but your character will last forever.
– Rick Warren
Character | Circumstances
Your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt.
– Rick Warren
Pain | Hurt | Ministry
For instance, God teaches us to love by putting some unlovely people around us. It takes no character to love people who are lovely and loving to you.
– Rick Warren
Love
Every problem is a character-building opportunity, and the more difficult it is, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fiber.
– Rick Warren
Character
God’s purpose is greater than our problems, our pain and even our sin.
– Rick Warren
God
And you know, when you’ve experienced grace and you feel like you’ve been forgiven, you’re a lot more forgiving of other people. You’re a lot more gracious to others.
– Rick Warren
Forgiveness | Grace
Fear is a self imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love.
– Rick Warren
Fear
Christ-likeness is your eventual destination, but your journey will last a lifetime.
– Rick Warren
Holiness
Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God while the other six deal with our relationships with people. But all ten are about relationships.
– Rick Warren
Friendship | Relationships
After learning to love God (worship), learning to love others is the second purpose of your life.
– Rick Warren
Worship | Learning
I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity: Jesus I believe in you and I receive you.
– Rick Warren
Prayer
Learning to love unselfishly is not an easy task. It runs counter to our self-centered nature.
– Rick Warren
Love | Learning
Christianity is not a religion or a philosophy, but a relationship and a lifestyle. The core of that lifestyle is thinking of others, as Jesus did, instead of ourselves.
– Rick Warren
Christianity | Relationships
You didn’t create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for!
– Rick Warren
Creation
Faithful servants never retire. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving God.
– Rick Warren
Faithful | Service
What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of it.
– Rick Warren
Life | Service
Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.
– Rick Warren
Pain | Helping
He (God) usually prefers to work through people rather than perform miracles, so that we will depend on each other for fellowship.
– Rick Warren
Encouragement | Fellowship
When life on earth is ending, people don’t surround themselves with objects. What we want around us is people – people we love and have relationships with.
– Rick Warren
Death | Relationships
There is no growth without change, no change without fear or loss and no loss without pain.
– Rick Warren
Suffering | Change | Growth
Jesus did not die on the cross just so we could live comfortable, well adjusted lives. His purpose is far deeper: He wants to make us like himself before he takes us to heaven. This is our greatest privilege, our immediate responsibility, and our ultimate destiny.
– Rick Warren
Heaven | The Cross | Responsibility
During the next 90 days, people are going to be more open to the Gospel than in years. It is God’s responsibility to make people receptive; it is our responsibility to sow the seed.
– Rick Warren
Evangelism | Responsibility
God develops the fruit of the Spirit in your life by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you’re tempted to express the exact opposite quality. Character development always involves a choice, and temptation provides that opportunity.
– Rick Warren
Circumstances | Character | Choices
Just as the nine months you spent in your mother’s womb were not an end in themselves but preparation for life, so this life is preparation for the next.
– Rick Warren
Life | Eternity
The smile of God is the goal of your life.
– Rick Warren
Life | Goals
Many people are reluctant to show mercy because they don’t understand the difference between trust and forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past. Trust has to do with future behavior.
– Rick Warren
Forgiveness | The Future | Trust
Your commitments can develop you or destroy you, but either way, they will define you.
– Rick Warren
Character | Commitment
It’s not about you!
– Rick Warren
Humility
You need to think more about eternity and not less.
– Rick Warren
Eternity
When you live in the light of eternity, your values change.
– Rick Warren
Eternity | Change
God does not want you to become a Go; he wants you to become godly – taking on his values, attitudes, and character.
– Rick Warren
Holiness | Attitude
While we worry about how fast we grow, God is concerned about how strong we grow.
– Rick Warren
Worry
Temptation always starts in your mind, not in circumstances.
– Rick Warren
Temptation | Circumstances
Living to create an earthly legacy is a short-sighted goal.
– Rick Warren
Life | Goals
Pride builds walls between people, humility builds bridges.
– Rick Warren
Pride | Humility
Change always starts in your mind. The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act.
– Rick Warren
Character | Change
Every time Satan suggested a temptation, Jesus countered by quoting Scripture.
– Rick Warren
Temptation
A non-serving Christian is a contradiction in terms.
– Rick Warren
Christians | Service
The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the creator of it. The same is true for discovering your life’s purpose: Ask God.
– Rick Warren
Life
Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make.
– Rick Warren
Life | Commitment
Self worth and net worth are not the same.
– Rick Warren
Finances | Self worth
Eternal values, not temporal ones, should become the deciding factors for your decisions.
– Rick Warren
Eternity
The most damaging aspect of contemporary living is short-term thinking.
– Rick Warren
Perseverance
Why is this happening to me? Why am I having such a difficult time? One answer is that life is supposed to be difficult! It’s what enables us to grow. Remember, earth is not heaven!
– Rick Warren
Suffering
Many of our trouble occur because we base our choices on unreliable authorities; culture (“everyone is doing it”), tradition (“we’ve always done it”), reason (“it seems logical”), or emotion (“it just felt right”).
– Rick Warren
Ignorance | Choices
There is nothing quite as potent as a focused life, one lived on purpose.
– Rick Warren
Life
God is much more concerned about your character than your career, because you will take your character into eternity, but not your career.
– Rick Warren
Character
You never know God is all you need until God is all you have.
– Rick Warren
God
God never wastes anything.
– Rick Warren
God
Remember that your character is the sum total of your habits.
– Rick Warren
Character
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
– Rick Warren
Humility
Every temptation is an opportunity to do good.
– Rick Warren
Temptation
God’s mercy to us is the motivation for showing mercy to others. Remember, you will never be asked to forgive someone else more than God has forgiven you.
– Rick Warren
Mercy
Possessions only provide temporary happiness.
– Rick Warren
Happiness
Don’t ever try to argue with the Devil.
– Rick Warren
Satan
Much confusion in the Christian life comes from ignoring the simple truth that God is far more interested in building your character than he is anything else.
– Rick Warren
Christians
The only way you can serve God is by serving other people.
– Rick Warren
Service
You are not an accident.
– Rick Warren
Life
You will not be in heaven two seconds before you cry out, why did I place so much importance on things that were so temporary? What was I thinking? Why did I waste so much time, energy and concern on what wasn’t going to last?
– Rick Warren
Heaven
At the end of your life on earth you will be evaluated and rewarded according to how well you handled what God entrusted to you.
– Rick Warren
Stewardship | Rewards
When you transfer into eternity, you will leave everything else behind. All you’re taking with you is your character.
– Rick Warren
Eternity
If others don’t use their gifts, you get cheated, and if you don’t use your gifts, they get cheated.
– Rick Warren
Service | Gifts
God uses his Word, people and circumstances to mold us. All three are indispensable for character development. God’s word provides the truth we need to grow, God’s people provide the support we need to grow, and circumstances provide the environment we need to grow.
– Rick Warren
Character | Circumstances
If God only used perfect people, nothing would get done. God will use anybody if you’re available.
– Rick Warren
Obedience
The Bible offers three metaphors that teach us God’s view of life: Life is a test, life is a trust and life is a temporary assignment.
– Rick Warren
Life | The Bible
Never forget that life is not about you! You exist for God’s purposes, not vise versa.
– Rick Warren
Life
Integrity is built by defeating the temptation to be dishonest; humility grows when we refuse to be prideful; and endurance develops every time you reject the temptation to give up.
– Rick Warren
Integrity | Humility | Endurance
God intentionally allows you to go through painful experiences to equip you for ministry to others.
– Rick Warren
Pain
Since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through. That includes loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection, and many other problems.
– Rick Warren
Suffering | Criticism | Stress
To make the best use of your life, you must never forget two truths: First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, earth is only a temporary residence. You won’t be here long, so don’t get too attached.
– Rick Warren
Life | Eternity
It is never too late to start growing.
– Rick Warren
Perseverance
Life on earth is a temporary assignment.
– Rick Warren
Life
God is looking for people to use, and if you can get usable, he will wear you out. The most dangerous prayer you can pray is this: ‘Use me.’
– Rick Warren
Service
Never confuse activity with productivity.
– Rick Warren
Service
Remember how far you’ve come, not just how far you have to go.
– Rick Warren
Perseverance
We’re a nation of laws, but the good thing about America, is that laws reside in the people and people can change the laws.
– Rick Warren
Politics | America
Your spiritual gifts were not given for your own benefit but for the benefit of others, just as other people were given gifts for your benefit.
– Rick Warren
Service | Gifts
Babies by nature are completely selfish. They think only of themselves and their own needs. They are incapable of giving; they can only receive. That is immature thinking. Unfortunately, many people never grow beyond that kind of thinking.
– Rick Warren
Selfishness
Life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not using him for your own purpose.
– Rick Warren
Life
Time is your most precious gift, because you only have a set amount of it.
– Rick Warren
Life | Time
God’s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ.
– Rick Warren
Character | Life | Goals
The Bible says that all people, not just believers, possess part of the image of God; that is why murder and abortion are wrong.
– Rick Warren
Abortion | Murder | The Bible
God made every one of us a sexual being, and that is good. Attraction and arousal are the natural, spontaneous, God-given responses to physical beauty, while lust is a deliberate act of the will.
– Rick Warren
Lust | Beauty
You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense.
– Rick Warren
Life