Nothing to Prove // Fave Quotes

Jennie Allen's newest book Nothing to Prove has been such a challenging blessing in my life currently.  Here are a few of my favorite snippets from the wisdom in those pages...

P.S.: You can find my review here.

"This story has a villain.  The villain scouts our lives & presses in at every crack he can find.  He gets into our heads.  His is the voice we hear saying, You are not enough.  You can't do it.  You are losing.  Something about those words rings terribly true."

"God knew we would never be enough.  So He became enough for us.  Jesus is our enough.  Now before you glaze over like you are in 6th grade Bible class, stop.  If memorizing that truth was enough to change us, we could end this thing right here.  The problem with all of our souls is we think we know a truth, but we don't live like it."

"I have found this pattern in Jesus' life, one I had never fully seen before.

He says, I am the Bread of Life.

He is the Bread of Life.  We are not.

He says, I am the Light of the World.

He is the Light.  We are not.

He says, I am the Door.

He is the Door.  We are not.

He says, I am the Way, the Truth.

We are not.

He is enough.  We are not.

I've lived so thirsty because I thought I knew where the water was.  I believed it was on the other side of that ever-moving thick black line of expectations that begged me to cross it, & to get there I'd have to muster up the necessary resources from within me.  That is why I was so tired.  I was trying to be bread & light & life & enough, & I couldn't ever seem to do it."

"God forgive us for deciding what it should look like to follow Him, for suggesting that fulfillment comes more from the life we build here than in the life that waits for us with Him."

"Only God has the resources & ability to exhaustively meet your needs.  Yes, we also were designed to need human relationships, but they can never be enjoyed if we're using them to replace the ultimate relationship.  When we begin to find our deepest, most fundamental needs met in God, then we will go from using people to meet our needs to enjoying people despite the ways they disappoint us."

"We will never kill our fears, though we tend to spend a lot of time trying to do so; we are called to walk on water - & to do so boldly despite our fears.  Jesus isn't scolding us for being afraid; He is calling us out of our comfortable boats to do something unthinkable, something that is possible only through His power.  Every time we risk, we place our lives into the hands of our God & test His enoughness.  It is for our freedom & joy that we stand out past the limits & confines of our comfort."