we unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves… But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves — unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely.
BRENNAN MANNINGThe gospel will persuade no one unless it has so convicted us that we are transformed by it.
More Brennan Manning Quotes
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I have been seized by the power of a great affection.
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What makes the Kingdom come is heartfelt compassion: a way of tenderness that knows no frontiers, no labels, no compartmentalizing, and no sectarian divisions.
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I could more easily contain Niagara Falls in a teacup than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God.
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The spirituality of wonder knows the world is charged with grace, that while sin and war, disease and death are terribly real, God’s loving presence and power in our midst are even more real.
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The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust — not only for all the gifts that I receive from God, but gratitude for all the suffering. Because in that purifying experience, suffering has often been the shortest path to intimacy with God.
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We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt.
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Letting ourselves be loved by God is more important than loving God.
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We are made for Christ, and nothing less will ever satisfy us.
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The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.
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Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace.
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There is an essential connection between experiencing God, loving God, and trusting God. You will trust God only as much as you love him. And you will love him to the extent you have touched him, rather that he has touched you.
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If asked whether I am finally letting God love me, just as I am, I would answer, ‘No, but I’m trying.
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In every encounter we either give life or we drain it; there is no neutral exchange.
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Jesus comes not for the super-spiritual but for the wobbly and the weak-kneed who know they don’t have it all together, and who are not too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.
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Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.
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I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me.
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To be alive is to be broken; to be broken is to stand in need of grace.
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Jesus reveals a God who does not demand but who gives; who does not oppress but who raises up; who does not wound but who heals; who does not condemn but forgives.
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That which is denied cannot be healed.
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Whatever we have done in the past, be it good or evil, great or small, is irrelevant to our stance before God today. It is only NOW that we are in the presence of God.
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For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.
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Faithfulness requires the courage to risk everything on Jesus, the willingness to keep growing, and the readiness to risk failure throughout our lives.
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Tragedy is that our attention centers on what people are not, rather than on what they are and who they might become.
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The gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we can’t save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient.
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There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are.
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To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means.
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