Richard J. Foster Quotes & Sayings

The message from all quarters is the same: our undisciplined consumption must end. If we continue to gobble up our resources without any regard to stewardship and to spew out our deadly wastes over land, sea, and air, we may well be drawing down the final curtain upon ourselves. — Richard J. Foster

Of all spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father. — Richard J. Foster

God's heart is the most sensitive and tender of all. No act goes unnoticed, no matter how insignificant or small. — Richard J. Foster

The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its way into our experience, then we have missed the point of the Disciplines. We are dealing with actions, not merely states of mind. — Richard J. Foster

If we are silent when we should speak, we are not living the Discipline of silence. If we speak when we should be silent, we again miss the mark. — Richard J. Foster

Extremes of wealth and poverty are a scandal to Christian brotherhood. They must not be allowed. — Richard J. Foster

Prayer is - listening for the still small voice of God. Listening with the "ear of our hearts." — Richard J. Foster

In submission we are at last free to value other people. Their dreams and plans become important to us. We have entered into a new, wonderful, glorious freedom, the freedom to give up our own rights for the good of others. For the first time we can love people unconditionally. We have given up the right for them to return our love. No longer do we feel we have to be treated in a certain way. We can rejoice with their successes. We feel genuine sorrow at their failures. It is of little consequence that our plans are frustrated, if their plans succeed. We discover that it is far better to serve our neighbor than to have our own way. — Richard J. Foster

But what I have come to see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. We do not have to be bright, or pure, or filled with faith, or anything. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by grace, we live by it as well. And we pray by it. — Richard J. Foster

It is only because of your love, only your love, that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them. — Richard J. Foster

Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service, we must experience the many little death of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial — Richard J. Foster

You see, the goal of the Christian life is not simply to get us into heaven, but to get heaven into us! — Richard J. Foster

Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment. — Richard J. Foster

Our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in "muchness" and "manyness," he will rest satisfied. — Richard J. Foster

Thinking is the hardest work we can do, and among the most important — Richard J. Foster

Our lifestyle is not our private affair. We dare not allow each person to do what is right in his or her own eyes. The Gospel demands more of us: it is obligatory upon us to help one another hammer out the shape of Christian simplicity in the midst of modern affluence. — Richard J. Foster

The person who does not seek the kingdom first does not seek it at all, regardless of how worthy the idolatry that he or she has substituted for it. — Richard J. Foster

I am not posing these questions only to the world at large. I query us who own Christ as our life. Can God be pleased by the vast and increasing inequities among us? Is he not grieved by our arrogant accumulation, while Christian brothers and sisters elsewhere languish and die? Is it not obligatory upon us to see beyond the nose of our own national interest, so that justice may roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream? Is there not an obligation upon us to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God is we want to live in his wonderful peace? — Richard J. Foster

He knew that "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," which is precisely why he commanded his followers: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth" (Matt. 6:21, 19). He is not saying that the heart should or should not be where the treasure is. He is stating the plain fact that wherever you find the treasure, you will find the heart. — Richard J. Foster

Countless people pray far more than they know. Often they have such a "stained-glass" image of prayer that they fail to recognize what they are experiencing as prayer and so condemn themselves for not praying. — Richard J. Foster

Dallas Willard writes, "If you want to experience the flow of love as never before, the next time you are in a competitive situation, pray that the others around you will be more outstanding, more praised, and more used of God than yourself. If Christians were universally to do this for each other, the earth would soon be filled with the knowledge of God's glory."4 — Richard J. Foster

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. — Richard J. Foster

We simply cannot consider the earth apart from Christ's footsteps imprinted upon it. — Richard J. Foster

Important insights ought never to be limited to the group from which may arise. — Richard J. Foster

Remember that the key to the Discipline of study is not reading many books, but experiencing what we do read. — Richard J. Foster

Corporate "confession of guilt." "The church," he declared, "confesses that she has witnessed the lawless application of brutal force, the physical and spiritual suffering of countless innocent people, oppression, hatred and murder, and that she has not raised her voice on behalf of the — Richard J. Foster

Nothing must come before the kingdom of God, including the desire for a simple life-style. — Richard J. Foster

The Prayer of Examine produces within us the priceless grace of self-knowledge. I wish I could adequately explain to you how great a grace this truly is. Unfortunately, contemporary men and women simply do not value self-knowledge in the same way that all preceding generations have. For us technocratic knowledge reigns supreme. Even when we pursue self-knowledge, we all too often reduce it to a hedonistic search for personal peace and prosperity. How poor we are! Even the pagan philosophers were wiser than this generation. They knew that an unexamined life was not worth living. — Richard J. Foster

Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. — Richard J. Foster

The mind will always take on an order conforming to that upon which it concentrates. — Richard J. Foster

Conversion does not make us perfect, but it does catapult us into a total experience of discipleship that affects - and infects - every sphere of our living. — Richard J. Foster

To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change. Resentments cannot be held with the same tenacity when we enter his gracious light. — Richard J. Foster

If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this leads us to prayer. — Richard J. Foster

We are not trying to manipulate God and tell Him what to do. Rather, we are asking Him to tell us what to do. — Richard J. Foster

One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are so accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. If we are silent, who will take control? God will take control, but we will never let him take control until we trust him. Silence is intimately related to trust. — Richard J. Foster

The truth is that there are no "masters" in the spiritual life. Mature and wise teachers, yes. But fundamentally we are all beginners receiving and giving on our knees before God and with open hands before one another. In this business no one "lords it over" another. Pay — Richard J. Foster

It is precisely in the "slop-bucket job" - the work that we abhor - where we will find God the most. We do not need to have good feelings or a warm glow in order to do work for the glory of God. All good work is pleasing to the Father. Even the jobs that seem meaningless and mindless to us are highly valued in the order of the kingdom of God. God values the ordinary. — Richard J. Foster

It is a hallow feeling to be in the company of someone with whom we long to have a satisfying personal exchange, only to watch hope dissolve as the time together is drained by superficial chatter or surface distractions. — Richard J. Foster

Through prayer and study, worship and service, we regularly digest God's word into the core of our being, where it feeds and transforms us. Continue — Richard J. Foster

Jesus Christ and all the writers of the New Testament call us to break free of mammon lust and live in joyous trust ... They point us toward a way of living in which everything we have we receive as a gift, and everything we have is cared for by God, and everything we have is available to others when it is right and good. This reality frames the heart of Christian simplicity. It is the means of liberation and power to do what is right and to overcome the forces of fear and avarice. — Richard J. Foster

Your prayer must be turned inwards, not towards a God of Heaven nor towards a God far off, but towards God who is closer to you than you are aware. — Richard J. Foster

Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. — Richard J. Foster

Silence frees us from the need to control others. One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. A frantic stream of words flows from us in an attempt to straighten others out. We want so desperately for them to agree with us, to see things our way. We evaluate people, judge people, condemn people. We devour people with our words. Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on that.
When we become quiet enough to let go of people, we learn compassion for them. — Richard J. Foster

Prayer involves transformed passions. In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God's thoughts after Him: to desire the things He desires, to love the things He loves, to will the things He wills. — Richard J. Foster

Spiritual Disciplines involve doing what we can do to receive from God the power to do what we cannot. — Richard J. Foster

Reading the Bible for spiritual transformation is not a one-sided endeavor: it is a dialogue of human spirit and Holy Spirit. — Richard J. Foster

Little children, love one another. — Richard J. Foster

The fruit of the Spirit is the outward evidence of the inward reality of a heart "abiding" in Christ. — Richard J. Foster

To pray is to change. This is a great grace. How good of God to provide a path whereby our lives can be taken over by love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. — Richard J. Foster

Goals are discovered, not made. — Richard J. Foster

The discovery of God lies in the daily and the ordinary, not in the spectacular and the heroic. If we cannot find God in the routines of home and shop, then we will not find Him at all. — Richard J. Foster

The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. — Richard J. Foster

Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honour and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered. If we stoutly refuse to give in to this lust of the flesh, we crucify it. Every time we crucify the flesh, we crucify our pride and arrogance. — Richard J. Foster

Begin now to obey Him in every way you can. Start right where you are, in the midst of all the tasks that press in upon you. Do not wait for some future time when you will have more time or be more perfect in knowledge. — Richard J. Foster

There is an old proverb to the effect that 'all those who open their mouths, close their eyes!' The purpose of silence and solitude is to be able to see and hear. Control rather than no noise is the key to silence. James saw clearly that the person who could control his tounge is perfect (James 3:1-12). Under the Discipline of silence and solitude we learn when to speak and when to refrain from speaking. — Richard J. Foster

God, what is man's best gift to mankind? To be beautiful of soul and then let people see into your soul. — Richard J. Foster

Prayer is - a means of uniting us unto Himself. — Richard J. Foster

Forms and rituals do not produce worship, nor does the disuse of forms and rituals. We can use all the right techniques and methods, we can have the best possible liturgy, but we have not worshiped the Lord until Spirit touches spirit. — Richard J. Foster

We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. 'We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like.' ... It is time to awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick. — Richard J. Foster

Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth but from falling in love. — Richard J. Foster

The spiritual discipline of simplicity is not a lost dream, but a recurrent version throughout history. It can be recaptured today. It must be. — Richard J. Foster

No hard figures are available on how much was actually paid out or how many Friends complied with the request of their Yearly Meeting. For those who did pay their slaves, it was common to use the yearly wage of the day. We do know that one Mr. F. Buxton, in an appeal before the British House of Commons to abolish slavery, said that it had cost North Carolina Friends fifty thousand pounds to release their slaves.14 For some southern Friends emancipation of their slaves meant financial bankruptcy; for many, if not most, it meant eventual migration to the North. — Richard J. Foster

Our ordinary method of dealing with ingrained sin is to launch a frontal attack. We rely on our willpower and determination. Whatever may be the issue for us--anger, fear, bitterness, gluttony, pride, lust, substance abuse--we determine never to do it again; we pray against it, fight against it, set our will against it. But the struggle is all in vain, and we find ourselves once again morally bankrupt or, worse yet, so proud of our external righteousness that "whitened sepulchers" is a mild description of our condition. — Richard J. Foster

Just as worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship. — Richard J. Foster

PRAYER IS THE serious business of the Church, the first and best business it renders for the world. — Richard J. Foster

A. W. Tozer says, "The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him."1 — Richard J. Foster

Adoration is the spontaneous yearning of the heart to worship, honor, magnify, and bless God. We ask nothing but to cherish him. We seek nothing but his exaltation. We focus on nothing but his goodness. — Richard J. Foster

Thomas Merton says, "We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!"2 — Richard J. Foster

Go another step. Try to live one entire day without words at all. Do it not as a law, but as an experiment. Note your feelings of helplessness and excessive dependence upon words to communicate. Try to find new ways to relate to tohers that are not dependent upon words. Enjoy, savor the day. Learn from it. — Richard J. Foster

Love, not anger, brought Jesus to the cross. Golgotha came as a result of God's great desire to forgive, not his reluctance. Jesus knew that by his vicarious suffering he could actually absorb all the evil of humanity and so heal it, forgive it, redeem it. — Richard J. Foster

As we see in Ezra's life, committed study of Scripture can bring about much more than merely head knowledge. It can bring God himself into all the recesses of our being, for "the word of God is living and active" (Heb 4:12). Take — Richard J. Foster

Stop trying to impress people with your clothes and impress them with your life. — Richard J. Foster

Restriction often enhances clarity. — Richard J. Foster

Overpopulation is the problem of the third and fourth World; over-consumption is the problem of the West. The average American child this year will consume as much of the world's resources as twenty children born in India. Deliberate and calculated waste is the central aspect of the American economy. We over-eat, over-buy, and over-built, spewing out our toxic wastes upon the earth and into the air. — Richard J. Foster

The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives - altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. — Richard J. Foster

Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin. Emmet — Richard J. Foster

Second Timothy is clear that we have a distinct, demanding body of doctrine that needs to be taught, a message that requires reiteration every Sunday if we, as the Church, are to be who we are called to be. — Richard J. Foster

We should all without shame enrol in the school of contemplative prayer. — Richard J. Foster

The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshiping the will. — Richard J. Foster

many things tempt our hearts to put them first and God second. We must root out the desire to worship these things and focus on the true God. The — Richard J. Foster

Prayer is the human response to the perpetual outpouring of love by which God lays siege to every soul. — Richard J. Foster

To most observers, innovation is a solitary process that requires creativity and genius, perhaps even greatness. It can't, in their view, be managed or predicted, just hoped for and, perhaps, facilitated. But for me innovation was and still is more than that. It was a battle in the marketplace between innovators or attackers trying to make money by changing the order of things, and defenders protecting their cash flow. — Richard J. Foster

It is an occupational hazard of devout folk to become stuffy bores. This should not be. Of all people, we should be the most free, alive, interesting. — Richard J. Foster

We read every verse of Scripture lovingly and attentively, because every verse is a potential summons from God. — Richard J. Foster

You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war (James 4:1, 2). — Richard J. Foster

In the spiritual life only one thing produces genuine joy and that is obedience. — Richard J. Foster

The tithe simply is not a sufficiently radical concept to embody the carefree unconcern for possessions that marks life in the Kingdom of God ...
It is quite possible to tithe and at the same time oppress the poor and needy ...
The tithe is not necessarily evil' it simply cannot provide a sufficient base for Jesus' call to carefree unconcern over provision ...
Perhaps the tithe can be a beginning way to acknowledge God as the owner of all things, but it is only a beginning and not an ending. — Richard J. Foster

Simplicity is the only thing that sufficiently reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us. — Richard J. Foster

To conform to a sick society is to become sick. — Richard J. Foster

True service is a lifestyle. It acts from the ingrained patterns of living. It springs spontaneously to meet human need. — Richard J. Foster

Freedom in the Gospel does not mean license. It means opportunity. — Richard J. Foster

Simplicity enables us to live lives of integrity in the face of the terrible realities of our global village. — Richard J. Foster

What is urgently needed is a bold new move from a consumer economy to a conserver economy in all of the developed countries, and particularly in the United States. — Richard J. Foster

Simplicity, then, is getting in touch with the divine center — Richard J. Foster

Our God is not made of stone. His heart is the most sensitive and tender of all. No act goes unnoticed, no matter how insignificant or small. A cup of cold water is enough to put tears in the eyes of God. God celebrates our feeble expressions of gratitude. — Richard J. Foster

And so the test of whether or not we have really gotten the point of the Bible would then be the quality of love that we show. — Richard J. Foster

We must understand the connection between inner solitude and inner silence; they are inseparable. All the masters of the interior life speak of the two in the same breath. — Richard J. Foster

Prayer is simply saying "thank you, bless you, praise you." — Richard J. Foster

Submission reaches the end of its tether when it becomes destructive. — Richard J. Foster

If we think we will have joy only by praying and singing psalms, we will be disillusioned. But if we fill our lives with simple good things and constantly thank God for them, we will be joyful, that is, full of joy. And what about our problems? When we determine to dwell on the good and excellent things in life, we will be so full of those things that they will tend to swallow our problems. — Richard J. Foster