Chip Ingram Quotes

Pray when you feel like praying," somebody has said. "Pray when you don't feel like praying. Pray until you do feel like praying.

Love sticks around even when it has a lot to put up with.

If you simplify your life, quit chasing the wind, and be quiet before Him, He'll show up.

Walking in love means giving the other person what he or she needs the most when it is least deserved, because that’s exactly how God has treated you.

Love is not a feeling; it's giving someone what he or she needs most when it is least deserved. That's how God loved me, and I choose to stick with the program.

SURRENDER—Pray Psalm 139:23–24: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Commit to respond to whatever the Holy Spirit reveals to you.

If I could sum up what the Bible teaches about giving in one statement, it would be this: Generous living produces emotional happiness.

Love says, "I'm with you, let's deal with it.

Unfortunately, most Christians do not understand the battle they are fighting, the enemy that they face, or the means God has provided to overcome the temptations and deception of this present world system.

If you attempt to build intimacy with a person before you’ve done the hard work of becoming a whole and healthy person, every relationship will be an attempt to complete the hole in your heart and the lack of what you don’t have. That relationship will end in disaster.”[1]

The existence of the devil is so clearly taught in the Bible that to doubt it is to doubt the Bible itself.

Character is always more caught than taught.

Annoying mishaps always seem to cluster around times of spiritual fruitfulness. That’s not exactly coincidence.

Whenever anxiety knocks on the door of your heart, answer it with prayer.

Love was the early Christians' marketing plan and their business card was joy.

Your priority in life should be a relationship with Christ, not an agenda for him.

Hopeless situations are never hopeless to God.

authentic followers of Christ follow Him in the midst of a hostile and toxic environment.

I would learn then that generosity has little or nothing to do with how much money you have or how far along you perceive yourself to be on your spiritual journey. In fact, I was shocked to learn that being generous has much more to do with being smart, shrewd, wise, and deliriously happy. In a word, I discovered that generosity is genius!

When you and I have to move forward and make important, life-changing decisions, how do we know what to choose? What’s right? What’s wrong? What’s true? Whom should we marry? What job should we take? Should we get involved in this or not? That’s when you and I need to claim God’s promise that he will lead and direct us as clearly as he did David. Notice that he leads us in the right path for “his name’s sake.” God is more committed to revealing his will to us than we are to following it. I assure you that if you will come to the place where you are honestly willing to do whatever God directs you to do, he will show you what to do 100 percent of the time (Ps. 32:8).

That’s why it is so dangerous to use infatuation as a sign to pursue a relationship. If you and I don’t know the difference between infatuation and love, we are destined to make some of the dumbest and most regrettable decisions we’ll ever make. These bad decisions come with heavy and painful price tags. So you see, it’s imperative in this tricky business of “falling in love” that we take the time to clearly define what we mean by the word “love.” The investment will pay off handsomely. We can actually learn how to avoid future relational baggage and how to recognize authentic love relationships when we clarify two crucial issues: (1) what love is, and (2) what the difference is between love and infatuation.

Slow me down, Lord. Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory. Teach me the art of taking minute vacations—of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to smile at a child, to read a few lines from a good book. Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values, that I may grow toward my greater destiny. Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed. Let me look upward to the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.

Stop worrying about being your child's buddy. You are the only one in the world with the primary responsibility of giving your child what he needs, not what he wants.

Perceptions are not reality. How you perceive your life, your value, and your destiny doesn't give you the whole picture. You may be seeing yourself and your significance dimly. But your self-perception determines in large measure the way your life will go.... It is vital that those deep questions at the core of your being are answered with truth. Dim or mistaken perceptions that aren't in keeping with reality must be challenged and corrected by the light of God's Word.

You won’t find this name in the Bible, but Satan is the original SweetTart distributor. Do you remember eating those candies when you were young? They are sweet on the outside and sour when you bite into them. The enemy will come with something that is good on the outside – like a legitimate, strong desire for food, sex, or achievement - offer it to you in the wrong way at the wrong time. He’ll get you to believe that his counterfeit pleasure is the only way to satisfy your emotional needs. He’ll offer sex to you from a video screen or in a perverted way, moving you away from what is good, true, loving, and wonderful, and twisting it into something that is evil and destructive in the end. It will always look and taste attractive – that is, until you bite into it. But the problem is that the sour part may not come for weeks, months, or even years. You can spend decades enjoying the sugary coating of sin, only to find out too late that when the sweetness is gone, there’s nothing left but a sour taste.

If we want to see God as he longs for us to see him, we must look at Jesus very closely.

This lifestyle of putting on the armor implies consistent and multiple efforts. We live this way because of what can happen if we don’t: relinquishing the benefit of our position in Christ as we are bombarded by schemes designed to destroy us and render us ineffective in kingdom pursuits.

The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes total pleasure in the happiness of His people.1

When you bow your head to pray—when you’re in a jam and you need to ask God for something—are you aware of who you’re talking to?

God has never sat around biting his nails, wondering what Hitler and Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein were going to do.

Our violent, narcissistic, noncommittal, “me first” culture is simply the logical and predictable expression of “truth” as a relative, subjective, unverifiable concept.

most of us learn to trust, not because we’re noble, brave, or godly, and certainly not because we have it together, but when we don’t have any other choice.

Understanding the role of God’s protection will not help us very much if we don’t first understand exactly why we need it. If your eyes are not yet open to the behind-the-scenes context of our new life in Christ—if you are still skeptical about the whole business—prepare to be jolted by the reality of the conflict raging around you.

Unfortunately, this unexpected, internal condition has often been called “falling in love.” This reaction to attraction, which we could also describe as a “chemically induced crush,” is actually infatuation. Who among us has not walked into a room, made eye contact with a complete stranger, and felt an instant, unexpected rush of emotion and attraction? Who hasn’t had that sudden impulse to look again? Why these moments happen and what exactly triggers them— who knows? But the feelings are definitely a temporary condition. The attraction is neither irresistible nor dependable. You can easily experience infatuation with people who would turn out to be relational nightmares. That’s why it is so dangerous

Interestingly, there has been significant research done with people experiencing what we call infatuation. When we have this experience we could call falling into infatuation (or falling into romantic interest), chemicals are secreted in the brain, causing light-headedness, dizziness, and a flood of emotions that we can’t explain. Certain people trigger that kind of response in us. We are almost instantly drawn to them.

Romans 11:33–36:

Worry and anxiety are not great thoughts; faith in God’s promise is.

Some of the dumbest things we do are done out of anger and bitterness when someone has wronged us.

Satan is always content to hide in the shadows of a worldview if he can exploit that worldview to his own ends.

Generosity is not so much a virtuous act as it is a virtuous response.

Shalom is a comprehensive expression of God's will for us in every situation we face.

For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chronicles 16:9 nasb).

Are we going to answer God’s call for this church to make a significant impact in this new millennium, or will we rest on past success?

God’s Word is very clear that we are sinners in need of salvation, and we cannot help ourselves. But he sent his Son into the world to live a perfect life and to die as the full payment for our sin. God’s holiness and our guilt have been satisfied completely. By faith, we accept the sacrifice of the Son of God and live by the power of his Spirit.

There's nothing wrong with dreaming about accomplishing great things, as long as that desire isn't focused on one's own glory.

What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.1

What most of us do not realize is that we are being transformed in our thinking all the time—either by the world’s value system or by the truth of God’s Word.

But the second half of the message has been sorely neglected: the part about God’s dream that you become a precious and cherished son or daughter living in deep union with Him.

Total commitment is about being wise and smart, not necessarily being noble or virtuous. It’s not so much about self-denial but about logic and common sense. It’s not so much about what you lose; it’s about what you gain.

God delights to do ... impossible things through improbable people to impart exceeding grace to undeserving recipients.

As believers in Christ, we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory. In Christ’s power, we are invincible.

You.” Jesus’s response is brutal but accurate: “Get behind Me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to Me” (vv. 22–23).