John Ortberg Quotes & Sayings

Over time, grit is what separates fruitful lives from aimlessness. — John Ortberg

You don't know how many people have been strengthened because you asked God to encourage them; how many people have been healed because you prayed for their bodies; how many spiritual runaways have come home because you prayed for their souls. None of us may ever know the true effects of our prayers this side of death. But we do know this: History belongs to the intercessors. — John Ortberg

Jesus is mysterious not just because of what we don't know about him, but because of what we do know about him. — John Ortberg

Ironically, the more obsessed we are with our selves, the more we neglect our souls. — John Ortberg

The paradox of soul-satisfaction is this: When I die to myself, my soul comes alive. God says the wrong approach to soul thirst is through human achievement and material wealth. So soul-satisfaction is not about acquiring the right things but about acquiring the right soul. It is not something you buy, but something you receive freely from God. Hear these great words of the prophet Isaiah: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and [your soul] will delight in the richest of fare." And it will be satisfied. — John Ortberg

Better to be a loving person without knowing how you got there, than an expert no one can stand to be around. — John Ortberg

Scratch the surface of any cynic, and you will find a wounded idealist underneath. Because of previous pain or disappointment, cynics make their conclusions about life before the questions have even been asked. This means that beyond just seeing what is wrong with the world, cynics lack the courage to do something about it. The dynamic beneath cynicism is a fear of accepting responsibility. — John Ortberg

As a preacher, my charge is to proclaim the message of the Scriptures. To help the people in my congregation become a people of the book. I love getting to do this. — John Ortberg

When you give your soul rest, you open it to the peace Jesus intends for you. — John Ortberg

Jesus is why women have traveled continents, spent decades learning a strange language so they could translate the Gospel, planting churches, caring for the sick, educating the illiterate, and marching for the oppressed. — John Ortberg

It may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I am worth dying for. — John Ortberg

Brilliant intellects do not matriculate to study under someone dumber than themselves. Paul recognized Jesus as master of the intellect, above him in every way. — John Ortberg

God is the most rejected person in the history of the universe. If — John Ortberg

Very often God's will for you will be "I want you to decide," because decision making is an indispensable part of character formation. God is primarily in the character-forming business, not the circumstance-shaping business. — John Ortberg

Opposition is an inevitable reality of pastoral life. — John Ortberg

In solitude we remember we are not what anybody thinks of us - we are sheep tended to by the Shepherd.
-John Ortberg — John Ortberg

Willpower is trying very hard not to do something you want to do very much. — John Ortberg

This was the great irony of his day: The 'righteous' were more damaged by their righteousness than the sinners were by their sin. — John Ortberg

Your eternal destiny is not cosmic retirement; it is to be part of a tremendously creative project, under unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast scale, with ever-increasing cycles of fruitfulness and enjoyment - that is the prophetic vision which 'eye has not seen and ear has not heard.' — John Ortberg

Make your life about something bigger than your life. — John Ortberg

deliberately look for God in the ordinary moments of everyday life. — John Ortberg

A paradox of the soul is that it is incapable of satisfying itself, but it is also incapable of living without satisfaction. You were made for soul-satisfaction, but you will only ever find it in God. The soul craves to be secure. The soul craves to be loved. The soul craves to be significant, and we find these only in God in a form that can satisfy us. That's why the psalmist says to God, "Because your love is better than life ... my soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods." Soul and appetite and satisfaction are dominant themes in the Bible - the soul craves because it is meant for God. "My soul, find rest in God. — John Ortberg

Disciplined people can do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason. — John Ortberg

Sometimes the opportunity doesn't involve going to a new place; it means finding a new and previously unrecognized opportunity in the old place. — John Ortberg

We all want to feel spiritually vigorous, and we hurt when we don't. This pain is intensified for people who lead church ministries. — John Ortberg

Your soul will never find rest unless it finds its home. We find it in the simple daily discipline of asking ourselves, "Is God here in this moment?" If he is not, he can be. — John Ortberg

...all of us are somewhere on a journey to God, and the gap between least and most advanced is infinitely smaller than the gap between the most advanced and God himself. — John Ortberg

I have always heard that you need to give yourself a long time to unplug when you do a sabbatical. I unplugged so fast I was a little concerned that I was losing brain capacity. — John Ortberg

What repeatedly enters your mind and occupies your mind, eventually shapes your mind, and will ultimately express itself in what you do and who you become. — John Ortberg

I need to worship because without it I can forget that I have a Big God beside me and live in fear. I need to worship because without it I can forget his calling and begin to live in a spirit of self-preoccupation. I need to worship because without it I lose a sense of wonder and gratitude and plod through life with blinders on. I need worship because my natural tendency is toward self-reliance and stubborn independence. — John Ortberg

For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. — John Ortberg

Jesus gave the world its most influential movement. — John Ortberg

The soul of one person can become intertwined with the soul of another. Aristotle is supposed to have said: "What is friendship? It is a single soul dwelling in two bodies." The ancient term for such a relationship is "soul friend," defined as one with whom I have no secrets. The ancient Celtic Christians said that "a person without a soul friend is like a body without a head. — John Ortberg

Peace doesn't come from finding a lake with no storms. It comes from having Jesus in the boat. — John Ortberg

People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller. — John Ortberg

If you want to do the work of God, pay attention to people. Notice them. Especially the people nobody else notices. — John Ortberg

You can only love and be loved to the extent that you know and are known by somebody. — John Ortberg

The soul knows a glory that the body cannot rob. In some ways, in some cases, the more the body revolts, the more the soul shines through. People may claim to believe that all you are is your body. But Pat said one time, "The only thing I can depend on with my body is that it will fail me. Somehow my body is mine, but it's not 'me. — John Ortberg

God's primary will for your life is not the achievements you accrue; it's the person you become. — John Ortberg

Sometimes the smallest acts of sacrifice or self-denial can break up hard soil. A — John Ortberg

Your soul is what integrates your will (your intentions), your mind (your thoughts and feelings, your values and conscience), and your body (your face, body language, and actions) into a single life. A soul is healthy - well-ordered - when there is harmony between these three entities and God's intent for all creation. When you are connected with God and other people in life, you have a healthy soul. — John Ortberg

It strikes me that presidential campaigns can often bring out the worst as well as the best in us. — John Ortberg

The greatest moment of your life is now.
Not because it's pleasant or happy or easy, but because this moment is the only moment you've got. Every past moment is irretrievably gone. It's never coming back. If you live there, you lose your life.
And the future is always out there somewhere. You can spend an eternity waiting for tomorrow, or worrying about tomorrow. If you live there, you likewise will lose your life.
This moment is God's irreplaceable gift to you. — John Ortberg

Have you no soul?" is really another way of saying, "Is it possible that your mind with its values and conscience are not even troubled by what your will has chosen and your body carried out? — John Ortberg

May your expectations all be frustrated, May all of your plans be thwarted, May all of your desires be withered into nothingness, That you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and can sing and dance in the love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. — John Ortberg

For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us — John Ortberg

Love me, love my rag dolls," God says. It's a package deal. — John Ortberg

I want to love my wife, care for my kids, and give life to my friends. I want to do the work God made me to do. I want to love God and the world he made. I want to do my part to help it flourish, for my spiritual maturity is not measured by following rules. "The me God made me to be" is measured by my capacity to love. When we live in love, we flourish. That is the dance. — John Ortberg

Life goes on. The world spins out another day. The mystery of human life and hope goes on. And here and there, the luminous light that shone out from a carpenter in Nazareth glimmers and flickers in the darkness. And we hope again for what life might become. The soul waits. — John Ortberg

Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism. — John Ortberg

Wolterstorff gives an amazing answer: the teaching of the Scriptures, clarified and made available to all the world through Jesus, that every human being is made in the image of God, and loved by God. There — John Ortberg

Our soul's problem, however, is not its neediness; it's our fallenness. Our need was meant to point us to God. Instead, we fasten our minds and bodies and wills on other sources of ultimate devotion, which the Bible calls idolatry. — John Ortberg

Wise people build their lives around what is eternal and squeeze in what is temporary. Not the other way around. — John Ortberg

Joylessness may be the sin most readily tolerated by the church. — John Ortberg

Greatness of soul is available to people who do not have the luxury of being ecstatic about the condition and appearance of their bodies. — John Ortberg

Ironically, often the thing that keeps me from experiencing joy is my preoccupation with self. The very selfishness that keeps me from pouring myself out for the joy of others also keeps me from noticing and delighting in the myriad small gifts God offers each day. This is why Walker Percy describes boredom as "the self stuffed with the self." — John Ortberg

What do we do in the dark night? We do nothing. We wait. We remember that we are not God. We hold on. We ask for help. We do less. We resign from things, we rest more, we stop going to church, we ask somebody else to pray because we can't. We let go of our need to hurry through it. You can't run in the dark. — John Ortberg

No one wants pain. Not even long-time, mature Christians who want to grow. We will always find ways to avoid pain. Pain itself is a bad thing. — John Ortberg

THE NEGLECTED SOUL DOESN'T GO AWAY; IT GOES AWRY — John Ortberg

But in a world where victimhood has become status, souls go unexamined for hardness. — John Ortberg

Let naught trouble thee; Let naught frighten thee; All Things pass. God alone changeth not. Patience can do all things. Whoever has God, has everything. God alone sufficeth. When the — John Ortberg

The record of his life and teaching, the Gospels, have impacted the world so much that they have been translated into 2,527 languages. The second-most-translated book, Don Quixote, has been translated into about 60 languages. The — John Ortberg

God is never a God of discouragement. When you have a discouraging spirit or train of thought in your mind, you can be sure it is not from God. He sometimes brings pain to his children-conviction over sin, or repentance over fallenness, or challenges that scare us, or visions of his holiness that overwhelm us. But God never brings discouragement. — John Ortberg

Over and over in the Bible, it is fear that threatens to keep people from trusting and obeying God. — John Ortberg

This is a beautiful vision that everyone should learn: that ignorance is the devil's tool, that God is the God of truth. George — John Ortberg

In reality, each thought we have carries with it a little spiritual power, a tug toward or away from God. No thought is purely neutral. — John Ortberg

The Holy Spirit says: You are it. You are God's plan. In a thirsty world, people need to be refreshed. It is a broken world, and people need to be healed. Now get out there and do it! — John Ortberg

If you have a positive attitude, you are likely to live a decade longer than people with a negative attitude. — John Ortberg

There is a pain that means things are coming apart. But then, sometimes there is a pain that means that things might be able to come back together. Surgery can be as painful as stabbing, but it leads to healing. I knew I was beginning to heal. — John Ortberg

Dieter once wrote in a letter: It is good that I work there. I am like that fruit. I am imperfect. Inside I am the same person, the same sense of humor, the same thoughts. But my words betray me. What should take three minutes to say is an hour of frustration. People lose patience with me. Aphasia means aloneness. But God hears me. My world is small, and quiet, and slow and simple. No stage. No performance. More real. Good. — John Ortberg

A deep soul lives in conscious awareness of eternity, not simply today. — John Ortberg

As long as we have unsolved problems, unfulfilled desires, and a mustard seed of faith, we have all we need for a vibrant prayer life. — John Ortberg

Training is essential for almost any significant endeavor in life - running a marathon, becoming a surgeon, learning how to play the piano. — John Ortberg

Politics, after all, is largely about power. And power goes to the core of our issues of control and narcissism and need to be right and tendency to divide the human race into 'us' vs. 'them.' — John Ortberg

The New Testament doesn't present Jesus as a single man to cover up his humanity. It presents him as a single man because ... he was a single man. — John Ortberg

Growth is the ability to handle larger and more interesting problems. — John Ortberg

The soul integrates the will and mind and body. Sin disintegrates them. In sin, my appetite for lust or anger or superiority dominates my will. My will, which was made to rule my body, becomes enslaved to what my body wants. When I flatter other people, I learn to use my mouth and my face to conceal my true thoughts and intentions. This always requires energy: I am disintegrating my body from my mind. I hate, but I can't admit it even to myself, so I must distort my perception of reality to rationalize my hatred: I disintegrate my thoughts from the reality. Sin ultimately makes long-term gratitude or friendship or meaning impossible. Sin eventually destroys my capacity even for enjoyment, let alone meaning. It distorts my perceptions, alienates my relationships, inflames my desires, and enslaves my will. This is what it means to lose your soul. — John Ortberg

Once you're a little bit to the side, God can come to the center. — John Ortberg

The ministry of bearing with one another is learning to hear God speak through difficult people. — John Ortberg

Love of learning led to monasteries, which became the cradle of academic guilds. — John Ortberg

When people feel they're getting to speak into what's being preached, there is high built-in motivation to participate. — John Ortberg

We are not the passive victim of others' opinions. Their opinions are powerless until we validate them. — John Ortberg

all of us lost souls allow ourselves to live in worry and anger and self-importance and pettiness when life with God is all around us: — John Ortberg

No heart is as whole as a broken heart, and no faith is as solid as a wounded faith. Elie Wiesel — John Ortberg

Frederick Faber: In the spiritual life God chooses to try our patience first of all by His slowness. He is slow: we are swift and precipitate. It is because we are but for a time, and He has been for eternity ... There is something greatly overawing in the extreme slowness of God. Let it overshadow our souls, but let it not disquiet them. We must wait for God, long, meekly, in the wind and wet, in the thunder and the lightning, in the cold and the dark. Wait, and He will come. He never comes to those who do not wait. He does not go their road. When He comes, go with Him, but go slowly, fall a little behind; when he quickens His pace, be sure of it, before you quicken yours. But when He slackens, slacken at once: and do not be slow only, but silent, very silent, for He is God. — John Ortberg

When the soul is understood and attended to, we can be liberated from hurry, preoccupation, unsatisfied desires, and chronic discontent. — John Ortberg

A soul centered in God always knows it has a heavenly Father who will hold its pain, its fear, its anxiety. — John Ortberg

There is such a love, a love that creates value in what is loved. There is a love that turns rag dolls into priceless treasures. There is a love that fastens itself onto ragged little creatures, for reasons that no one could ever quite figure out, and makes them precious and valued beyond calculation. This is love beyond reason. This is the love of God. — John Ortberg

Religious hypocrisy is one of the great barriers to faith for any thoughtful person. Why become a Christian when the church is filled with so many hypocrites and deeply flawed people? Mark — John Ortberg

When preaching is done right, it can change lives. When it's done badly, my failure goes beyond the merely human. — John Ortberg

We complicate our faith and lives in many ways, but at the core, our purpose is simple: We are called to love. — John Ortberg

Mission began with God. God has a mission. That's why he made for himself a people, but his mission came before people. His mission came before the Bible. He gave his mission a Bible. He gave his mission a people. God's mission, God's project, is to bless. Open doors are an invitation to be part of the missio Dei. — John Ortberg

God did not create us out of need. He created us out of his love.C. S. Lewis wrote,God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. — John Ortberg

The decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort. This means that to be a follower of Jesus, you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life. — John Ortberg

Everybody wears an unseen sign that reads: Inspire me. Remind me that my life matters; call me to be my best self; appeal to whatever in me is most noble and honorable. Don't let me go down the path of least resistance. Challenge me to make my life about something more than the acquisition of money or success — John Ortberg

Nobody lives up to the norms that God had in mind when he first created human beings. — John Ortberg

Greatness is never achieved through indecision. — John Ortberg

There is something you can't fix, can't heal, or can't escape, and all you can do it trust God. Finding ultimate refuge in God means you become so immersed in his presence, so convinced of his goodness, so devoted to his lordship that you find even the cave is a perfectly safe place to be because he is there with you. — John Ortberg

Authority can be faked. That's why impersonating a police officer is a crime. Sometimes the outward appearances of authority can be deceiving. — John Ortberg

A healthy soul is whole and integrated. It is connected to God. A person with a healthy soul is at peace with God, with himself, and with other people. — John Ortberg