Quotes about Spirituality

In short order, here are the top ten symptoms of emotionally unhealthy spirituality: Using God to run from God Ignoring anger, sadness, and fear Dying to the wrong things Denying the impact of the past on the present Dividing life into "secular" and "sacred" compartments Doing for God instead of being with God Spiritualizing away conflict Covering over brokenness, weakness, and failure Living without limits Judging other people's spiritual journey

Christian faith: emotional health and spiritual maturity are inseparable.

Looking to the past illumines the present. But make no mistake about it; it is painful. Because so few people do the hard work of going back in order to go forward, the symptoms of a disconnected spirituality are everywhere. The compartmentalization of our spirituality from the rest of our lives becomes necessary because there is so little integration.

It is always true to some extent that we make our images of God. It is even truer that our image of God makes us. Eventually we become like the God we image. One of the most beautiful fruits of knowing the God of Jesus is a compassionate attitude towards ourselves. . . . This is why Scripture attaches such importance to knowing God. Healing our image of God heals our image of ourselves.12

Emotions are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice.

The very glory God gave Jesus has been given to us (John 17:21—22).

We are deeply loved by God for who we are, not for what we do.

In this journey of emotionally healthy spirituality, we are talking about radical change at the core of our being. At least two critical forces hinder such a profound shift. First, the pressure of others to keep us living lives that are not our own is enormous. And second, our own stubborn self-will is much deeper and more insidious than we think.

Healing our image of God heals our image of ourselves.

It has been said that the real measure of our sense of self is when we are with our parents for more than three days. At that point we need to ask ourselves how old we feel. Have we gone back to our patterns of behaving more in line with our childhood, or have we broken free from our past to live in what God has for us now?

Martha's problems, however, go beyond her busyness. I suspect that if Martha were to sit at the feet of Jesus, she would still be distracted by everything on her mind.

What are the hurricane winds, internal and external, that prevent us from becoming all God intends?