“But old habits die hard. Guilt, anger, greed, jealousy — all are habit forming. And like any habit that goes unchecked, over time they come to define us. These disorders become such a part of us that we no longer view them as issues to be resolved. Instead, we dismiss these destructive habits as characteristics […]
‘ . . . the idea of God owing you something probably strikes you the same way it did me at first – absurd. How could God owe me something? As a Christian, I’ve always believed that I owe him everything. Perhaps that’s why our jealousy is so easily misdirected. And perhaps that’s why it […]
“Fear is the driving force behind greed. Fear fuels greed. . . . Greed is supported by an endless cast of what ifs.”- Andy Stanley Then he (Jesus) said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”- Luke 12:51 (NIV) In Chapter 8 […]
“You’ve first got to decide that you can be free (from anger). They you’ve got to quit using your story as an excuse. The problem is that good excuses rarely collect dust. We use them and use them and use them.”- Andy Stanley Andy Stanley concludes Chapter 7 of Enemies of the Heart as he […]
“And to be honest, if you discover that you’re carrying a heart full of anger, that won’t come as a surprise to the people who love you the most. They’ve known for a long time. And changer are, they’ve been praying that one day you would wake up and see it for yourself.”- Andy Stanley […]
“It’s easy to believe that the only remedy for our anger is payback. . . . The irony is that, in most cases, the perceived debt can never be paid. . . . but actually it’s a tragedy . . . because people spend much of their lives waiting for debts to be paid that […]
“Guilt says, ‘I owe you.’ Guilt is the result of having done something we perceived as wrong. Every wrong we do can be restated as an act of theft. . . . If I steal from you, I owe you. So the message from a heart laden with guilt is, ‘I owe you.’ “- […]
“They’re the four primary enemies of the heart — four life-blocking agents that become lodged in the heart, poisoning our relationships, our faith, and our character. There corrosive forces gain strength from the darkness. Secrecy is their greatest ally.”- Andy Stanley In Chapter 5 (“Dynamic Debt”) of Enemies of the Heart, Andy Stanley discusses the […]
” . . . none of us reach adulthood without a few dings to the heart. Our response to those dings determines the condition of our hearts. We cannot control how people treat us. We cannot stop their hurtful words. But we can monitor their effects on our hearts. And perhaps, as we’ll se, we […]
“Everything we experience is processed through our hearts, the good and the bad. Life comes at us from all directions, but it all gets channeled through our hearts.”- Andy Stanley In Chapter 4 (“Heart Damage”) of Enemies of the Heart, Andy Stanley observes that all the good and bad of life gets channeled through our […]
“But if the issues on Jesus’ list (Matthew 15:19-20) emanate from the heart, then clearly we need a new monitoring strategy. After all, if knew knew how to monitor our hearts, if we knew how to deal with trouble at its source, then perhaps we would see a marked improvement in our behavior.”- Andy Stanley […]
“If it suddenly became impossible for us to cover up all the junk we normally hide from the rest of humanity, I have a feeling we would all be motivated to deal with the source of what ails us. If the filters came off, we would no doubt be relentless about repairing the condition of […]