Devotional Quotes

“What do think about abortion?”
“I could feel the tension growing in the plane. I dropped my head, acknowledging that we had very different value systems for our lives. Then I thought of a way to respond to his question.
“You’re Jewish, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said defensively. “I told you I was!”
“Do you know how Hitler persuaded the German people to destroy more than six million of your Jewish ancestors?” The man looked at me expectantly, so I continued. ”He convinced them that Jews were not human and then exterminated your people like rats.”
I could see that I had his attention, so I went on. “Do you understand how Americans enslaved, tortured, and killed millions of Africans? We dehumanized them so our constitution didn’t apply to them, and then we treated them worse than animals.”
“How about the Native Americans?” I pressed. “Do you have any idea how we managed to hunt Indians like wild animals, drive them out of their own land, burn their villages, rape their women, and slaughter their children? Do you have any clue how everyday people turned into cruel murderers?”
My Jewish friend was silent, and his eyes were filling with tears as I made my point. “We made people believe that the Native Americans were wild savages, not real human beings, and then we brutalized them without any conviction of wrongdoing! Now do you understand how we have persuaded mothers to kill their own babies? We took the word fetus, which is the Latin word for ‘offspring,’ and redefined it to dehumanize the unborn. We told mothers, ‘That is not really a baby you are carrying in your belly; it is a fetus, tissue that suddenly forms into a human being just seconds before it exits the womb.’ In doing so, we were able to assert that, in the issue of abortion, there is only one person’s human rights to consider, and then we convinced mothers that disposing of fetal tissue (terminating the life of their babies) was a woman’s right. Our constitution no longer protects the unborn because they are not real people. They are just lifeless blobs of tissue.”
By now, tears were flowing down his cheeks. I looked right into his eyes and said, “Your people, the Native Americans, and the African Americans should be the greatest defenders of the unborn on the planet. After all, you know what it’s like for society to redefine you so that they can destroy your races. But ironically, your races have the highest abortion rates in this country! Somebody is still trying to exterminate your people, and you don’t even realize it. The names have changed, but the plot remains the same!”
Finally he couldn’t handle it anymore. He blurted out, “I have never heard anything like this before. I am hanging out with the wrong people. I have been deceived!”
― Kris Vallotton

“How do you wipe away pain? You don’t. You put in tenderness, compassion and joy. You cling to hope and then you offer everything to God. And you wait, with faith you see all things anew – light shines out from darkness, happiness grows through every pain, and all things become indeed so very beautiful in His time.”
― Jocelyn Soriano, 366 Days of Compassion: One Year Catholic Devotional

“Sometimes, all we need is just one person who believes in us and who will never give up on us. Someone who sees beyond our weaknesses, beyond our faults. Who knows that though we walk in darkness, we can still find our way into the light.”
― Jocelyn Soriano, 366 Days of Compassion: One Year Catholic Devotional

“Never accept limitations.”
― Jake Byrne, First and Goal: What Football Taught Me About Never Giving Up

“The deepest wounds of the soul are healed only by compassion... People do not merely need to be clothed, they need to be embraced with love. A love that enters into their own fears and frailty, a love that suffers with them and stays with them through their darkest hour.”
― Jocelyn Soriano, 366 Days of Compassion: One Year Catholic Devotional

“It isn’t violence that can break through our hearts. It isn’t force that binds us and keeps us together. Only tenderness has the power to accomplish what the fullness of love desires to do. Tenderness that approaches us little by little, and handles our feelings with the deepest affection and delight. Tenderness that is willing to wait for the right time until we are ready and we are no longer afraid.”
― Jocelyn Soriano, 366 Days of Compassion: One Year Catholic Devotional

“The giver is more than the gift; God is more than the blessing. And our being kept waiting on Him is the only way for our learning to find our life and joy in Himself. Oh, if God’s children only knew what a glorious God they have, and what a privilege it is to be linked in fellowship with Him, then they would rejoice in Him! Even when He keeps them waiting, they will learn to understand better than ever. ”Therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you.” His waiting will be the highest proof of His graciousness.”
― Andrew Murray, Waiting on God

“Love has a certain element of tenderness, which alone pierces through the heart and binds us more intimately than any force in the universe ever can.”
― Jocelyn Soriano, 366 Days of Compassion: One Year Catholic Devotional

“The Bible strongly encourages us to get involved in discipleship.”
― Jim George, A Man After God's Own Heart: Devoting Your Life to What Really Matters

“Life is hard. If anyone tells you otherwise, they're lying. But life without faith is even harder.”
― Lori Hatcher, Hungry for God ... Starving for Time - Five-Minute Devotions for Busy Women

“Each Christian comes from a different background, upbringing, lineage, and environment. But in Christ we are unified.”
― Elizabeth George, Understanding Your Blessings in Christ: Ephesians

“Oh! that I might repose on Thee! Oh! that Thou wouldest enter into my heart, inebriate it, that I may forget my ills, and embrace Thee, my sole good?”
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

“There at the cross, we see all pain and darkness conquered in such a way that it is defeated forever. Not by disregarding it. Not by denying it. But by giving value even to our tears. By loving everything about us, including our very worst hurts.”
― Jocelyn Soriano, 366 Days of Compassion: One Year Catholic Devotional

“Studying a book that was finished nearly two thousand years ago may appear to some like an interesting but somewhat impractical pursuit. Quaint and antiquarian, the diligent examination of the Bible might seem better suited to an old seminary professor or a historian. We probably never actually talk this way, but we are all tempted to think like this when the busy cares of life press in on us. Reading the Bible gets placed on a mental shelf of good intentions, where it remains admired, not seriously examined and applied.”
― John Snyder, Behold Your God Student Workbo

“In the words of a pastor friend, "Christianity is less about holding on to God and more about God holding on to you.”
― Lori Hatcher, Hungry for God ... Starving for Time - Five-Minute Devotions for Busy Women

“The God who delivered Hezekiah and the children of Israel is the same God who is eager to act on my behalf.”
― Lori Hatcher

“If we stop to ponder the paths of our feet, would we:

Allow our children to participate in sports or activities that will ultimately consume our family time, dictate our schedules, and cause us to miss church on a regular basis?”
― Lori Hatcher, Hungry for God ... Starving for Time - Five-Minute Devotions for Busy Women

“What we do determines much of what happens in the world to come, not just for ourselves, but for those around us.”
― Lori Hatcher, Hungry for God ... Starving for Time - Five-Minute Devotions for Busy Women

“The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you can live fully in the present.”
― Dana Arcuri, Harvest of Hope: Living Victoriously Through Adversity, A 50-Day Devotional

“We shall never arrive at true meekness by any other way than by humiliating ourselves and by honoring others from the depth of our hearts.”
― John Calvin

“The Gospel does not say, "you must do good works." Rather, it fashions us into human beings, into creatures who cannot help serve God and fellow human beings. Without a doubt, a precious effect!”
― C.F.W. Walther, Law & Gospel: How to Read & Apply the Bible

“God has already been in your tomorrow, and is working on your today.”
― Virginia Martin, Faith Without Borders: A Devotional to Inspire You to Step Out in Faith.

“God has equipped me for battle, and is by my side leading me to victory.”
― Virginia Martin, Faith Without Borders: A Devotional to Inspire You to Step Out in Faith.

“Hope is the light that flickers and burns eternally, when you remain steadfast with faith.”
― Virginia Martin, Faith Without Borders: A Devotional to Inspire You to Step Out in Faith.

“Nothing touches our lives but it is God Himself speaking. Do we discern His hand or only mere occurrence?”
― Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

“... God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so.”
― Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

“When it comes to believing in the important things in life (like love, hope, justice, peace) we have a hard time proving they are real things. We cannot put love in a beaker over a Bunsen burner and watch it prove its existence to us. We believe in love because we have faith that it is there. Our faith in love is not blind faith. Though we cannot prove love is real, we have reasons for believing that it is. It’s the same with God. No one can prove God’s existence, but we can have faith in the evidence that we do have." (Life Hacks, p.18)”
― Jon Morrison, Life Hacks: Nine Ideas That Will Change How You Do Everything

“The greatest thing in all the world is loving. The second greatest in all the world is learning.”
― George H. Morrison, Addresses by The Reverend George H. Morrison: "The Afterglow of God" and "The Gateways to the Stars"

“I hope you remember that you always have a place to hide, away from the noise of the world, away from all that dares to wound your heart. You can always hide within the merciful heart of God.”
― Jocelyn Soriano, 366 Days of Compassion: One Year Catholic Devotional

“This study is written with the conviction that our fundamental need in Western Christianity is to repent of our low and unworthy views of God, to return to the biblical descriptions of the true God, and to risk it all in order to live upon Who He is.”
― John Snyder, Behold Your God Student Workbo