At last, quotes (a lot of quotes!!) from a book I finished a few months ago (it's been a while, so by way of a reminder: when I read books that I know God is using to shape the core of who I am, I like to compile all of the parts that I underlined while I was reading. It's nice to have an archive of the words and lines and quotes and phrases that impacted me most.)
If something doesn't make sense I very well could have typed it wrong...or it may be better understood if read in its full context...I would highly recommend that you read the whole book if you're interested.
All quotes, unless otherwise stated, are from Dallas Willard.
Introduction
I'm glad you're reading this book. Read it as if we are having a personal conversation - just you and me talking together, with the Lord between us.
memorization enables us to keep God and His truth constantly before our minds, allowing His Word and wisdom to help us.
unlimited in resources, just as He is unlimited in love, He is the Good Shepherd who generously provides for our every need.
Our confidence in God soars far above wants and fears.
you can live without fear even in the midst of a world dominated by fear.
the complete sufficiency of the life without lack is based upon the presence of God.
I would not feast upon a delicious meal in their ("my enemies") presence and let them stand there hungry. The abundance of God's provision and safety in my life is so great, I would invite them to enjoy what God has prepared for me.
I can be as generous as my Shepherd without fear of ever running out.
A life without lack is a life in which one is completely satisfied and sustained, no matter what happens.
Chapter 1
the most important thing about your mind is what it is fixed upon.
The ultimate freedom we have as individuals is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon and think about.
Yet there is every reason to hope if they would just stop looking at themselves and look at God instead.
The preaching of the Gospel will bring the mind to dwell intelligently upon God as He is presented in His Word, which will have the effect of causing us to love God passionately - in a way that brings us to think of God steadily. Thus He will always be before our minds.
fasting is feasting upon God.
Once you begin to have an impression of who God truly is, everything else fades into insignificance.
God is not stingy. He dwells in magnificent abundance, and lovingly provides for our needs out of that abundance.
God loves to gush forth with His goodness.
Chapter 2
your primary contact with God is through your mind, and what you do with your mind is the most important choice you have.
if we place our minds on God, the reality of God comes into our lives.
God is a being who is perfectly glorious and perfectly safe.
Even when you give God your highest praise, he will always be deserving of more.
we, too, require a long, steady education in this direction....increasingly come to know and trust God as He truly is.
fear and worry are worthless.
fix your mind upon God and ask him to fill your mind with himself.
even severe fears can be faced when we are confident in the strength and generosity of God - and in the fact that his kingdom isn't shaken, and he is not undone by these things.
let the worst happen! let the worst happen and God and I will go on together in the abundance of his being.
...have the magnificence and grandeur and glorious reality of God's being brought to our attention.
Chapter 3
it is hard for people to believe they are spirit-infused beings with such power, privilege and responsibility.
people are valuable even if they're doing nothing; we do not have to earn our value.
the obviously well kept secret of the "ordinary" is that it is make to be a receptacle of the divine, a place where the life of God flows.
the highest potential of God's love and power is available to us in the trivial things of everyday life.
work to produce more of the good he has put in this world.
work is the expending of energy to produce good in various forms and ways.
the real challenge to every person's faith is that we do everything to the glory of God, even in the smallest actions of our days.
submission is setting aside our own ideas as supreme and our own will as ultimate, freeing us from the burden of having our own way and of being all-wise in our own eyes.
people exist to love as Jesus loved.
Chapter 4
...the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8)
his (the enemy) intent is to thwart God's purposes by manipulating the minds of human beings.
when we seek to understand and destroy evil in the world, we must realize that we are dealing with something far beyond our natural capabilities, and we need to address evil with that realization.
satan uses not only our desires to deceive us but also our fears.
the only thing that can keep us straight is being full of God and full of His word.
this world is a perfectly good and safe place for anyone to be, no matter the circumstances, if they have placed their lives in the hands of Jesus and his Father. In such a world we never have to do what we know to be wrong, and we never need be afraid.
a society can lose the truth it once possessed simply by no longer desiring truth above reputation, pleasure and power
when looking good takes precedence over knowing the good, satan wins the battle...
when our minds are on God, and our thoughts are formed by our knowledge of God, such sufficiency will flow to us.
...think about God as Jesus thought about him, and to trust God as Jesus trusted Him - moving from having faith in Jesus to having the faith of Jesus.
Chapter 5
only faith would lead you to seek God with all your heart
if you have enough faith to speak it, then you may have enough faith to do it.
God is more concerned with who you are becoming than in what you can accomplish with your faith. he desires that you become the kind of person who can joyfully and easily receive an abundance of faith and power - the gift of great faith from God, who knows when, what kind, and how much to give us.
...they went through a painful process and came to understand how the blessing of God goes well beyond failure, disappointment and tragedy.
I don't care what's going to happen, I am holding on to God!
the life without lack is known by those who have learned how to trust God in the moment of their need....it is in that moment, when everything else is gone, that you know the reality of God.
in trusting you will know God.
He stopped trying to get God to make everything right.
Seek the Lord. Ask him to reveal himself to you and give you the faith of sufficiency that knowns no bounds.
the truth of God's grace is that we never merit the good that is done to us. Grace is opposed to earning, but it is not opposed to effort, because effort is action and earning is attitude.
we are not trying to impress anyone, most of all not ourselves.
Chapter 6
you were not put here on earth to get rid of yourself. you were put here to be a self, and to live fully as a self.
...to live with uncrucified affections and desires, is simply a matter of putting them in the ultimate position in our lives. whatever we want becomes the most important thing.
God prompts us to have an interest in what is better and best.
as long as people are hung up on honor from other people - reputation, appearing well - they cannot truly believe and trust God.
these beautiful qualities (from James 3:17-18) are marks of persons who have learned in their heart of hearts the great freedom of death to self, and out of their peaceful lives comes everything that is right and good.
