Solomon warned us not to rush into God’s presence with words. That’s what fools do. And often, that’s what we do.

You've got to do some work now. Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. Virtue is about moral excellence.

Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy.

Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so that they don't have to.

I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it.

As we begin to focus more on Christ, loving Him and others becomes more natural. As long as we pursuing Him, we satisfied in Him. It is when we stop actively loving Him that we find ourselves restless and gravitating toward other means of fulfillment

Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.