Inspirational Quotes by Richard J. Foster
“Freedom from anxiety is characterized by three inner attitudes. If what we have we received as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety.”
“In his excellent little book entitled Freedom from Sinful Thoughts Heini Arnold writes, “We…want to make it quite clear that we cannot free and purify our own heart by exerting our own ‘will.’”3”
“We are all subject to forgetfulness of God’s faithfulness in the past, laziness to act on the divine promise, and postponing until tomorrow what Jesus is asking of us today: childlike abandonment in trust.”
“The more guilt and shame that we have buried within ourselves, the more compelled we feel to seek relief through sin.”
“To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change. Resentments cannot be held with the same tenacity when we enter his gracious light.”
“A Spiritual Discipline is an intentionally directed action by which we do what we can do in order to receive from God the ability (or power) to do what we cannot achieve by direct effort.”
“Spiritual Disciplines involve doing what we can do to receive from God the power to do what we cannot do. And God graciously uses this process to produce in us the kind of person who automatically will do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.”
“When Jesus walked among humankind there was a certain simplicity to being his disciple. Primarily it meant to go with him, in an attitude of observation, study, obedience, and imitation. There were no correspondence courses. One knew what to do and what it would cost.”
“We too are yoked to One who is trained. Our only task is to keep in step with him. He chooses the direction and leads the way. As we walk step by step with him, we soon discover that we have lost the crushing burden of needing to take care of ourselves and get our own way, and we discover that the burden is indeed light. We come into the joyful, simple life of hearing and obeying.”
“The unreasoned boast abounds that the good life is found in accumulation, that “more is better.”
“The offering of ourselves can only be the offering of our lived experience, because this alone is who we are. And who we are—not who we want to be—is the only offering we have to give. We give God therefore not just our strengths but also our weaknesses, not just our giftedness but also our brokenness.”
“We are learning the obedience of unwearied patience in the midst of pestering children. We are learning the obedience of absolute gentleness with the frustrations and fears and pains of our spouse. We are learning the obedience of settled peace in the expectation of events beyond our control. This is the Covenant of Holy Obedience.”
“But all authentic prayer is a scraping of the heart whereby the dregs of the soul are offered up to God. Nehemiah’s”
“Once we have made generous latitude for individual differences and schedules, we must firmly discipline ourselves to a regular pattern of prayer. We cannot assume that time will somehow magically appear. We will never have time for prayer—we must make time. On this score we have to be ruthless with our rationalizations. We must never, for instance, excuse our prayerlessness under the guise of “always living prayerfully.”
“Self-denial is an unfamiliar concept for many of us today, and we worry that it requires losing our individuality. But all self-denial means is realizing that we do not always have to have our own way, that our happiness does not depend on getting what we want.1”
“The Covenant of Place gives us the gift of focus.”
“Discipline is to present us before grace, it does not produce grace to make sense.”
“Freedom comes not from the absence of restraint but from the presence of discipline.”
“The Spiritual Disciplines in and of themselves have no merit whatsoever. They possess no righteousness, contain no rectitude. Their purpose—their only purpose—is to place us before God. After that they have come to the end of their usefulness. But it is enough.”
“over many centuries and through multiple human authors, God has so superintended the development of the Bible that it speaks to us about real life (zoë) and teaches us how to live “with God”
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Richard J. Foster is a Christian theologian and author in the Quaker tradition. His writings speak to a broad Christian audience. He has been a professor at Friends University and pastor of Evangelical Friends churches. Foster resides in Denver, Colorado. He earned his undergraduate degree at George Fox University in Oregon and his Doctor of Pastoral Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Foster is best known for his 1978 book Celebration of Discipline, which examines the inward disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, and study in the Christian life, the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, and the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. It has sold over one million copies. It was named by Christianity Today as one of the top ten books of the twentieth century.