faith

"To come to faith on the basis of experience alone is unwise, though not so foolish as to reject faith altogether because of lack of experience ... the quality of a Christian's experience depends on the quality of his faith, just as the quality of his faith depends in turn on the quality of his understanding of God's truth."

"Lord, when I feel that what I'm doing is insignificant and unimportant, help me to remember that everything I do is significant and important in your eyes, because you love me and you put me here, and no one else can do what I am doing in exactly the way I do it."

"Satisfaction in life doesn't jump on you, you work for it, you earn it. You will not sit in a place, fold your hands and expect to be satisfied with life."

"The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not."

"You are entitled to know that two entities occupy your body. One of these entities is motivated by and responds to the impulse of fear. The other is motivated by and responds to the impulse of faith. Will you be guided by faith or will you allow fear to overtake you?"

"Judged by the normal standards of human affairs, the lives of men and women of God may look overburdened with suffering, and even inconclusive."

"The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song. Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved."

"Never, ever stop believing in magic, no matter how old you get. Because if you keep looking long enough and don't give up, sooner or later you're going to find Mary Poppins."

"Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love - but sometimes it was so hard to love."

"You didn’t just automatically become a Christian, did you? You weren’t made a Christian by just going to church. Just like you are not made a car by sitting in a garage all day! You have to make a decision."

"Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced."

"Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy."

"Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically."

"It seems to me some people just go around lookin' to get their faith unsettled. That has been the fashion for the last hundred years or so."

"When in darkness....strike a match"

"Sometimes we can focus so much on nothing that we make it a big something of nothing"

"The religionist is a living fossil, embedded in that rock called faith."

"To become one who believes two become one, you need love in your life."

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."

"Faith is simply whatever is real to us."