“So what will happen with the poison that spoils God’s good gifts? God will either turn it into medicine or remove it completely. The gifts will remain – which are we ourselves and everything that surrounds us.”
– Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, p. 32
“Forgiveness is not defined by a feeling, although it will ultimately change our feelings. . . . Forgiveness is our determined and deliberate willingness to let something go. To release it from our possession. To be willing and ready for it to no longer occupy us. God is not asking us to let ‘it’ go haphazardly into the black hole of nonexistence. Forgiveness means letting it go to God. Letting it go from our power to His. Forgiveness is the ongoing act by which we agree with God over the matter, practice the mercy He’s extended to us, and surrender the situation, the repercussions, and the hurtful person to Him.”
— Beth Moore, Praying God’s Word
“God works against evil and suffering. But God, in immense divine power and inscrutable divine wisdom, also works through evil and suffering.”
–Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, p. 30
“Regardless of whether we feel strong or weak, we remember that our assurance is not based upon our ability to conjure up some special feeling. Rather, it is built upon a confident assurance in the faithfulness of God. We focus on his trustworthiness and especially on his steadfast love.”
–Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 212
“Second, we ask. This is the step of faith. As we come to clearness about what is needed, we invite God’s healing to come. We speak a definite, straightforward declaration of what is to be. We do not weaken our request with ifs, ands, or buts.”
–Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 211
“We can’t forgive: that’s the work of the Spirit. We’re too damaged. But we can be willing. And in the meantime, try not to break his fingers.”
–Anne Lamott, quoting a friend in Grace (Eventually), p. 194
“Forgiveness is not acting as if things are just the same as before the offense. We must face the fact that things will never be the same. By the grace of God they can be a thousand times better, but they will never again be the same.”
— Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 188
[Jesus] “teaches us in this way because he knows how very much God loves to forgive. It is the one thing he yearns to do, aches to do, rushes to do. At the very heart of the universe is God’s desire to give and to forgive.”
— Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home
“Please, accept the word of this prodigal, without illustration, that God can solve all the problems we have created in our marriages. Our Creator knows that as human beings living in a sinful world, we often fail Him. He is ready to forgive us and rescue us and our marriages from satan.”
–Bob Steinkamp, Prodigals Do Come Home, p. 28.
“God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. I must take one step, and then I get light for the next. This keeps the heart in abiding dependence upon God.”
–C. H. Mackintosh, quoted in Then Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan