Christian quotes aren’t hard to find. You can find them on keychains, coffee mugs, your own Facebook page, and a dozen other places. Christian quotes are usually short, catchy, and written in looping calligraphy, and more often than not, they’re cheesy enough to make us roll our eyes.
But not all Christian quotes are like that. Some of them barge into our brains and refuse to leave. Some of them stick with us. Change us. Make us better.
Christian Quotes to Inspire You
I’ve been exposed to Christian literature my whole life, so here are seven of my favorite Christian quotes that have stuck with me and have since made me better. We have then included over 50 of the most popular Christian quotes that can provide timely encouragement on topics important to your faith.
1. John Piper
God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
What it means to me: The more we rely on God, and the more we let ourselves be content with Him, the more God makes Himself evident in our lives.
What to do about it: Realize that while the world is a beautiful place, it can never fill up our souls the way God does. You don’t need to remodel the bathroom; you need God. You don’t need a new car; you need God. Realize that, and you’ll have a much harder time griping when life doesn’t go your way.
2. Rick Warren
God’s purpose is greater than our problems.
What it means to me: Human life is a messy business — a hodge-podge of everything from minor inconveniences to death itself. God is bigger than every single one of those things.
What to do about it: Human life and all its problems may be messy, but it is also temporary. Realize that while it’s natural and necessary to grieve, even the most excruciating physical and emotional pain can become insignificant as a fly when faced with the Almighty God.
3. RC Sproul
We are secured not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because he holds tightly to us.
What it means to me: I’m a fickle person who can’t possibly love God with anything other than broken promises, mixed motivations, and selfish intentions. I can’t possibly hold onto God with that kind of heart, but I’m saved because, despite all that, God doesn’t want to let me go.
What to do about it: If you’re not sure whether or not you’re a “good Christian,” remember that there is no such thing. Moses’s burst of anger got him barred from the Promised Land. King David committed adultery, murder, and an attempted coverup of both. Peter denied his love for Jesus three times. If these biblical heroes, who were also completely human were saved by God, then you can, too.
4. C.S. Lewis
You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
What it means to me: It’s true that we’ve made a lot of mistakes, and it’s true that we can’t go back and change them. But God cares much less about our pasts than about helping us move forward in a better way.
What to do about it: Quit wallowing in all the things you’ve done wrong and go live your life! Yes, it’s important to examine your mistakes, learn from them, and make amends, however possible. But the more time you spend looking at your past, the less time you spend looking at God.
5. Oswald Chambers
We are all ill-taught if we look for results only in the earthlies when we pray. A praying saint performs far more havoc among the unseen forces of darkness than we have the slightest notion of.
What it means to me: The phrase “all we can do is pray” is nonsense. Poppycock. Codswallop. Even if your prayers don’t heal your loved one’s sickness, or keep your spouse from getting laid off, or make this or that politician act like a decent human being for once, your prayers do something better: They draw upon the strength of God, and they use that strength to win the battle for your soul.
What to do about it: Learn to pray for what God wants, not what you want. Ask Him what His will is before you pray for what your will is.
6. Watchman Nee
Good is not always God’s will, but God’s will is always good.
What it means to me: God doesn’t just passively watch as Satan wreaks havoc; He actively allows bad things to happen. The fact that God challenged Satan to destroy Job’s family, living, and health for the sake of a bet is proof of that. But God used that bet to teach Job that his friends weren’t good friends at all, it isn’t his place to question God, and that faith is stronger than even the most devastating hardships.
What to do about it: No matter how terrible life gets, don’t let yourself get fixated on the waves that crash around you. Instead, focus on Jesus and walk across the water.
7. Billy Graham
God proved His love on the cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, “I love you.”
What it means to me: It means that nothing we do, nothing we say, and nothing we think can be big enough to make God turn away from us. This one act — this one attack that won the war between God and death — is living proof that the gospel is real. That God means it when He gives love in return for our hate.
What to do about it: Think about this, the greatest “I-love-you,” every minute of every day. Share it. Live by it. Be defined by it. God let Jesus be spit on and flogged and crucified so that humans could be His family. In light of that simple truth, everything beautiful becomes more so, and everything ugly becomes insignificant.
Christian Quotes About Love
But the kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence. It's a love that operates more like a sign language than being spoken outright. - Bob Goff
Love is worthless unless it acts out, unless it’s expressed in deed and behavior. - Dr. David Jeremiah
Love leaves a legacy. How you treated other people, not your wealth or accomplishments, is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth. - Rick Warren
Those in the circle of Christ had no doubt of his love; those in our circles should have no doubt about ours. - Max Lucado
Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering... The love of God did not protect His own Son... He will not necessarily protect us – not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process. - Elisabeth Elliot
God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. - Augustine
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. - Mother Teresa
Christian Quotes About Encouragement
Alleged impossibilities are opportunities for our capacities to be stretched. - Chuck Swindoll
If you believe in a God who controls the big things, you have to believe in a God who controls the little things. It is we, of course, to whom things look 'little' or 'big'. - Elisabeth Elliott
Life is too short, the world is too big, and God's love it too great to live ordinary. - Christine Caine
Look for every opportunity to encourage someone. You don’t know who is wrestling with demons that could end his or her life that day. A kind word comes from God. Be brave enough to act on it. - Aaron Behr
Remember who you are. Don’t compromise for anyone, for any reason. You are a child of the Almighty God. Live that truth. - Lysa TerKeurst
Christian Quotes About Faith
Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them. - Elizabeth Elliot
Give me the Love that leads the way, Faith that nothing can dismay, Hope no disappointments tire, Passion that’ll burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod, Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God. - Amy Carmichael
Don’t dig up in doubt what you planted in faith - Elizabeth Elliot
Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand. - Thomas Aquinas
You are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read. - John McArthur
Relying on God has to start all over everyday, as if nothing has yet been done. - C.S Lewis
The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it’s going to be a lot better and a lot bigger. - Elizabeth Elliot
Christian Quotes About Hope
If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart. - Oswald Chambers
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up. - Anne Lamott
Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19) because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made. - R.C. Sproul
All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. - Francis of Assisi
God is able to take the mess of our past and turn it into a message. He takes the trials and tests and turns them into a testimony. - Christine Caine
Of one thing I am perfectly sure: God’s story never ends with ‘ashes.’ - Elizabeth Elliot
You can look forward with hope, because one day there will be no more separation, no more scars, and no more suffering in My Father’s House. It's the home of your dreams! - Anne Graham Lotz
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words — And never stops at all. - Emily Dickinson
Christian Quotes About Life
Failure means nothing now, only that it taught me life. - Elizabeth Elliot
The best we can hope for in this life is a knothole peek at the shining realities ahead. Yet a glimpse is enough. It’s enough to convince our hearts that whatever sufferings and sorrows currently assail us aren’t worthy of comparison to that which waits over the horizon. - Joni Eareckson Tada
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength. - Corrie Ten Boom
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.- Charles Spurgeon
When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life. - Rick Warren
I have one desire now – to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it. - Elizabeth Elliot
The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation. - Corrie Ten Boom
When you don’t know what to do next, just do the thing in front of you. - Elizabeth Elliot
God is looking for those with whom He can do the impossible - what a pity that we plan only the things that we can do by ourselves. - A.W Tozer
There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for. - Elizabeth Elliot
Christian Quotes About Friendship
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘You too? I thought I was the only one. - C.S. Lewis
You can't live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place. - Tim Keller
Thankfully, God brought wise Christian friends alongside to help me discover life-transforming precepts in his Word. - Joni Eareckson Tada
If I take offence easily; if I am content to continue in cold unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love. - Amy Carmichael
Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light. - Helen Keller
Like a surgeon, friends cut you in order to heal you. - Tim Keller
There is a scarcity of friendship, but not of friends. - Thomas Fuller
The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are. - C.S Lewis
Christian Quotes About Marriage
God created us in his image, male and female, with personhood and sexual passions, so that when he comes to us in this world there would be these powerful words and images to describe the promises and the pleasures of our covenant relationship with him through Christ. - John Piper
A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. - Ruth Bell Graham
When a man and a woman give themselves to each other in an act of marital love, they can know the love of Christ as no one else can know it - J. Vernon McGee
God created marriage. No government subcommittee envisioned it. No social organization developed it. Marriage was conceived and born in the mind of God. - Max Lucado
Men, you’ll never be a good groom to your wife unless you’re first a good bride to Jesus. - Tim Keller
Christian marriage is marked by discipline and self-denial. Christianity does not therefore depreciate marriage, it sanctifies it. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Nothing can bring a real sense of security into the home except true love - Billy Graham
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