black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father’s active goodness and unrestricted love.

Brennan Manning

The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.
BRENNAN MANNING

Age Appearance Goodness Temptation
In every encounter we either give life or we drain it; there is no neutral exchange.
BRENNAN MANNING

Encounter exchange Life
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 MANNING

Assumption Attitude Compassionate Freedom God Projection
In Love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve.
BRENNAN MANNING

Love Service Wound
The Good News of the gospel of grace cries out: We are all, equally, privileged but unentitled beggars at the door of God’s mercy!
BRENNAN MANNING

God Goodness Grace Mercy Scripture
God is enough. That is the root of peace. When we start seeking something besides Him, we lose it.
BRENNAN MANNING

Enough God Himself Lose Peace Seek Start
I am wonderfully content with a God who does not deal with me as my sins deserve.
BRENNAN MANNING

Content Deserve God Myself Sin Wonderful
Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.
BRENNAN MANNING

Encouragement Evil Failure Forever Grace Sorrow Suffering
My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.
BRENNAN MANNING

Aware Deep Deserve God Love Myself
Christianity doesn’t deny the reality of suffering and evil Our hope is not based on the idea that we are going to be free of pain and suffering. Rather, it is based on the conviction that we will triumph over suffering.
BRENNAN MANNING

Evil Freedom Hope Idea Ourselves Pain Reality Success Suffering
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.
BRENNAN MANNING

Authentic Character Dominant Experience Flow God Gratitude Intimacy Life Purity Spiritual Trust
Hope knows that if great trials are avoided great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth into greatness of soul is aborted.
BRENNAN MANNING

Avoid Greatness Growth Hope Soul
The litmus test of our love for God is our love of neighbor.
BRENNAN MANNING

Friendship God Love Neighbor Ourselves Science Test
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.
BRENNAN MANNING

Beautiful Discipline Face Honesty Pretend Transparent
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.
BRENNAN MANNING

Demand Forgiveness Generosity God Healing Oppression Reveal Wound
The gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we can’t save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient.
BRENNAN MANNING

Declare Prayer Save Scripture Sufficient
What makes the Kingdom come is heartfelt compassion: a way of tenderness that knows no frontiers, no labels, no compartmentalizing, and no sectarian divisions.
BRENNAN MANNING

Compassionate Department Division Heart Tender
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
BRENNAN MANNING

acknowledgment Believe Day Greatness Himself Life Simplicity Style World
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.
BRENNAN MANNING

Charge Death Grace Hard Time Reality Sin Spiritual War Wonder World
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.
BRENNAN MANNING

Acceptance Amazing God Grace Spiritual Togetherness Weakness
Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise.
BRENNAN MANNING

Faith Person Promise Ultimate
Letting ourselves be loved by God is more important than loving God.
BRENNAN MANNING

God Important Love Ourselves
The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception. It keeps us from denying that though Christ was victorious, the battle with lust, greed, and pride still rages within us.
BRENNAN MANNING

Amazing Battle Goodness Grace Lust Lying Ourselves Stop Victory
Our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh when we learn where the outcast weeps.
BRENNAN MANNING

Cry Heart Learning Stone
Faithfulness requires the courage to risk everything on Jesus, the willingness to keep growing, and the readiness to risk failure throughout our lives.
BRENNAN MANNING

Courage Failure Faith Growth Live Ourselves Risk Willing
The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.
BRENNAN MANNING

Darkness Existence Imperfection Light Man True Woman
We must go out into a desert of some kind (your backyard will do) and come into a personal experience of the awesome love of God.
BRENNAN MANNING

Desert Experience God Kind Love Personal

Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father’s active goodness and unrestricted love.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father’s active goodness and unrestricted love.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Brennan Manning Quotes