Craig T. Owens

This is an excellent book! Here are a dozen quotes that especially caught my attention…

“Jesus isn’t calling us to be greater than He is. He’s calling us to be greater with Him through His Spirit within us.”

“Most believers aren’t in imminent danger of ruining their lives. They’re facing a danger that’s far greater: wasting them.” 

“I talked about how many believers are stuck in mediocrity because they settle for good enough. But I think, just as often, we miss out on what God wants to do through us because we listen to the voice of the enemy telling us, You’ll never be good enough. And God could never use someone with your weaknesses, hang-ups, secret struggles, and dysfunctions.”

“God doesn’t see you through eyes of disapproval or disappointment. His presence is not a sign of condemnation. It’s actually an invitation. God is present with you, through His Holy Spirit, because He intends to uproot you from the tyranny of the familiar, shatter the monotonous life you’ve had, and take you on an adventure.”

“You can’t expect God to entrust you with a big dream if He can’t trust you to make a small start. You can’t have the Apostle Paul’s walk with God overnight. Big dream. But you can pray ten minutes a day beginning tomorrow. Small start.”

“It’s not what we do for God. It’s what we say to God—yes or no.”

“I can’t tell you where the greater life will ultimately lead you, but I can tell you where it starts. It starts where you are. You have everything you need to do all that God is calling you to do right now.”

“We often excuse ourselves from God’s greater vision because we believe we don’t have enough for God to work with. …All God needs to take your life to a higher level is all you have.” 

“Instead of always praying, ‘God bless me with more,’ dare to pray, ‘God, use what I have. Take what little I have and make it overflow.’”

“I’m learning that I don’t have to put my unfulfilled dreams and unanswered prayers in the column labeled Wasted. I don’t have to write them off as losses at the end of each year. I can trust in the Lord with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding, because He’s my Trustee (see Proverbs 3:5). …If you don’t see the results you’re praying for and you’re praying in faith, then, according to God’s will, He must be putting your prayers in a trust fund. …Everyone experiences what seem to be unanswered prayers. But in God’s economy, no one’s faith is ever wasted. God is working on our behalf even when our prayers don’t seem to be working at all. Maybe one day we’ll see that the greatest setbacks in our lives were actually the greatest setups to seeing God’s glory in places we didn’t even know to look.”

“Greater isn’t an automatic, permanent position; it’s an intentional daily decision.”