“We do not pray to inform God of our needs, because He knows what we need before we ask.What is prayer like for you?Is it a religious ritual that you perform out of habit?Is it a spiritual discipline that you practice because you want to be the best Christian you possibly can be?Is it a mechanism by which you can bring your “shopping list” to God in order to have your needs met?Or are you running to meet your Lover, to commune with Him, hungering to find your joy in Him, and to be fulfilled in His presence?”

“We do not pray to inform God of our needs, because He knows what we need before we ask.What is prayer like for you?Is it a religious ritual that you perform out of habit?Is it a spiritual discipline that you practice because you want to be the best Christian you possibly can be?Is it a mechanism by which you can bring your “shopping list” to God in order to have your needs met?Or are you running to meet your Lover, to commune with Him, hungering to find your joy in Him, and to be fulfilled in His presence?”

“To the degree that God gives us the grace to see Him, our lives and our ministries will become fruitful and effective.”

“We have often done well knowing the mind of God in our churches today. We have not done as well knowing His heart. We have largely become a church that pursues insights, principles, and theological concepts. No other church in history has had sounder theology or has known as much about God as many of our churches do today. However, we seem to know so little about His heart. Maybe this has troubled you, too. With all our insight, all our knowledge, all our information, and all our depth of theology, we seem to have so much difficulty functioning in the most basic Christian things, like personal holiness and loving people more than things. In our churches we are so easily hurt, and we hold on to those hurts for so long. We easily walk away from one another and quickly leave our churches when we experience disappointments and failures. There is often much judging and little compassion. Too many people remain alone in their pain.God desires to reveal His heart to us and to build His heart into us as we seek His face. Insight alone does not transform us; only the things that flow from the heart of God transform the lives of people. As God opens His heart to be known by us and as He builds His heart into us, His love will flow through us to those who are in desperate need of His forgiveness, His compassion, His healing, and His life.”