A House of Goodness

God, Growth 0

God wants to build you a house whereof the walls shall be goodness; you want a house whereof the walls shall be comfort. But God knows that such walls cannot be built; that kind of stone crumbles away in the foolish workman’s hands.

— George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 16

A Higher Way

God, Growth 0

God gave man power to thwart his will, that, by means of that same power, he might come at last to do his will in a higher kind and way than would otherwise have been possible to him.

— George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 12

It’s All About Love.

God, Life, Love 0

This is, after all, a love story.

Why else would love be the deepest yearning of our hearts?

Isn’t love the greatest joy of human existence? And the loss of love our greatest sorrow? Do not the two great commands confirm this? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). Love, for this is your destiny. Love God, and love each other. The banners that fly over God’s kingdom are the banners of love. It’s not about Bible study and faithful church attendance, not even dutiful marriage. Take the heart out of all that and it will absolutely kill you. This story is meant to be a passionate love affair. “I have loved you,” God says, “with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3).

We live in a love story, a romance written before the foundations of the earth. Aren’t the most impassioned pleas of the Bible directed toward love?

— John and Stasi Eldredge, Love & War, p. 27

As We Forgive

Forgiveness, God 0

Were it possible for God to forgive an unforgiving man, the man himself would not be able to believe for a moment that God did forgive him, and therefore could get no comfort or help or joy of any kind from the forgiveness; so essentially does hatred, or revenge, or contempt, or anything that separates us from man, separate us from God too.

— George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 12

God’s Surprising Kindness

Forgiveness, God, Growth 0

It is the kindest thing God can do for his children sometimes, to let them fall in the mire. They would not hold by their Father’s hand; they struggled to pull away; he let them go, and there they lay. But when they stretch forth the hand to him again, he will take them, and clean, not their garments only, but their heart, and soul, and consciousness. Pray to your Father, my child. He will change your humiliation into humility, your shame into purity.

— George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 6

The Prodigal Father

Compassion, God 0

God is tender — just like the prodigal’s father — only with this difference, that God has millions of prodigals, and never gets tired of going out to meet them and welcome them back, everyone as if he were the only prodigal son He had ever had. There’s a Father indeed.

— George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 4

Spiritual Adults

God, Growth 0

Does it seem inconsistent with the character of God that in order that sin should become impossible he should allow sin to come into the world? Is it not possible that, in order that his creatures should choose the good and refuse the evil, in order that they might become such with their whole nature infinitely enlarged, as to turn from sin with a perfect repugnance of the will, he should allow them to fall? Why would he not, in order that, from being sweet childish children they should become noble, childlike men and women, let them try to walk alone?

— George MacDonald, Wisdom To Live By: Nuggets of Insight from All Collected Works, edited by Michael Phillips, p. 4

Thank God.

God, Gratitude, Joy, Life 0

Do you see it? Do you see what a special, precious opportunity each day of your life is?

Look more closely. See all the lessons you can learn. See how you can participate in your growth. Se how carefully God holds your hand, guides you down the right path, offers just the right words and opportunities at the right moments, sends just the right people your way.

You can feel. You can touch. You can agonize in despair and giggle with glee. You can make jokes. You can cry at movies. You can weep in bed at night. Then get up the next day, refreshed.

You can taste an orange, a lemon, a mango — and describe in detail the difference in each of those tastes. You can smell a forest of pine trees. You can hold your friend’s hand and feel how he trembles because he’s afraid. . . .

You can wait and thank God later.

But you might as well thank God now.

Maybe the best way to thank God is by living your life fully today.

— Melody Beattie, More Language of Letting Go, p.373