160 Quotes by Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley, a prominent American pastor and author, has had a profound impact on the lives of millions through his ministry and teaching. Born in 1932, Stanley's approach to preaching is characterized by its practicality and reliance on biblical principles. He served as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, for several decades, where his teachings attracted a large congregation and a global television audience. Stanley's commitment to faithfully expound on the Word of God earned him respect as a trusted spiritual guide for many. His emphasis on prayer, faith, and the transformative power of God's grace has resonated with countless individuals seeking spiritual growth and guidance.
In addition to his preaching, Stanley is a prolific author, having written numerous books on Christian living and spiritual development. His writings have reached a wide audience, offering wisdom and encouragement for believers navigating the challenges of life. As a steadfast advocate of Christ-centered living, Charles Stanley's ministry has left an enduring legacy of hope, compassion, and steadfast faith, inspiring individuals to deepen their relationship with God and find solace in the eternal truths of the Christian faith.
Charles Stanley Quotes
Prayer is an act of faith. Just by praying to God, you are declaring our trust in someone other than yourself. Your faith is increased as you pray and watch how God answers your prayers.
We must remember that the shortest distance between our problems and their solutions is the distance between our knees and the floor.
God is responsible for the consequences of our obedience, WE are responsible for the consequences of our disobedience
Basically, there are two paths you can walk: faith or fear. It's impossible to simultaneously trust God and not trust God.
It is not the trials in your life that develop or destroy you, but rather your response to those hardships.
From the world’s perspective, there are many places you can go to find comfort. But there is only one place you will find a hand to catch your tears and a heart to listen to your every longing. True peace comes only from God.
God’s Word is absolutely true. You may not understand how God is going to bring about what He’s promised you, but He is keeping every promise that He has ever made. He will never deceive you or disappoint you, and He will never change His mind about what He’s told you.
Our heavenly Father understands our disappointment, suffering, pain, fear, and doubt. He is always there to encourage our hearts and help us understand that He's sufficient for all of our needs. When I accepted this as an absolute truth in my life, I found that my worrying stopped.
Often times God demonstrates His faithfulness in adversity by providing for us what we need to survive. He does not change our painful circumstances. He sustains us through them.
Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on the object we're waiting for.
Wherever you go, God is with you - watching over you, protecting you, and providing the truth you need for every situation. The question is, will you open your heart to His Word, apply it to your life, and allow God to change you so that He can use you in ways far greater than you can imagine?
From Genesis to Revelation, here's the central message: God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God, the Triune God is in control of all things, period.
You must never sacrifice your relationship with God for the sake of a relationship with another person.
Brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness.
God allows us to dace difficulties so that our faith will be stretched and refined. The trials we face provide an excellent opportunity for us to declare our dependence on God and not on ourselves. The way we win the battle with discouragement is by humbling ourselves before God and telling Him that we need Him. There is only one way to do this, and it is through prayer.
An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate.
We are the product of our thinking, so it is important that we choose carefully where to focus our mental energy.
If you put your faith in yourself and your abilities, intellect and dreams, then your foundation is only as strong as you are.
We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.
You may go through difficulty, hardship, or trial—but as long as you are anchored to Him, you will have hope.
Disappointment is inevitable. But to become discouraged, there's a choice I make. God would never discourage me. He would always point me to himself to trust him. Therefore, my discouragement is from Satan. As you go through the emotions that we have, hostility is not from God, bitterness, unforgiveness, all of these are attacks from Satan.
As you walk through the valley of the unknown, you will find the footprints of Jesus both in front of you and beside you.
His voice leads us not into timid discipleship but into bold witness.
God wants you to understand the Word of God. The Bible is not a mystery book. It's not a book of philosophy. It's a book of truth that explains the attitude and heart of almighty God.
Fight all your battles on your knees and you win every time.
Regardless of the source of our pain, we must accept that God knows, God loves, and God is at work.
The time you spend alone with God will transform your character and increase your devotion. Then your integrity and godly behavior in an unbelieving world will make others long to know the Lord.
God will never reject you. Whether you accept Him is your decision.
Often times God wants us to sit before Him in quietness. He doesn't want us to do all the talking. As Is. 30:15 says "In quiet and confidence will be your strength."
The blood that poured from Christ's wounds bought your salvation. If you want to truly value what He did, think of Him hanging on that cross just for you. With that thought in your mind, consider how you should live. He gave Himself freely for you; are you giving yourself fully to Him?
In our friendships we have to be wise that we choose godly people to be our friends. Somebody might say, well does that mean that you should never have a lost person as your friend? No, I wouldn't say that. But you can't have the same intimacy with a lost person that you can with a godly person in whom the Holy Spirit is living.
When trouble comes, focus on God's ability to care for you.
The Scriptures contain many stories of people who waited years or even decades before the Lord's promises came to pass. What modern believers can learn from the patience of biblical saints like Abraham, Joseph, David, and Paul is that waiting upon the Lord has eternal rewards.
No matter how far we may wander from the Lord’s perfect will for our lives, we are always welcome back.
The dark moments of our life will last only so long as is necessary for God to accomplish His purpose in us.
God is looking for imperfect men and women who have learned to walk in moment-by-momen t dependence on the Holy Spirit. Christians who have come to terms with their inadequacies, fears, and failures. Believers who have become discontent with 'surviving' and have taken the time to investigate everything God has to offer in this life.
You always have God's undivided attention.
There is only one secure foundation: a genuine, deep relationship with Jesus Christ, which will carry you through any and all turmoil. No matter what storms are raging all around, you'll stand firm if you stand on His love.
The bottom line in the Christian life is obedience and most people don't even like the word.
Adversity is not simply a tool. It is God's most effective tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives. The circumstances and events that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch us into periods of intense spiritual growth. Once we begin to understand this, and accept it as a spiritual fact of life, adversity becomes easier to bear.
Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.
Your life is going to be determined by your prayer life.
Perhaps you have been ensnared by a sinful habit that you will not abandon, and your guilt is so overwhelming you are ashamed to approach Christ. Whatever the reason for your broken intimacy with God, there is good news. Jesus waits to embrace you now in the arms of unconditional, divine love.
Stop for a minute and think about how you typically interact with God. If prayer time is dominated by your own talking, some adjustments may be in order. Just as the Lord spoke to David, God also has many things to say to you, if you'll simply let Him speak.
When we surrender to His timing, He does mighty things in and for us, according to His will and His timing. God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
If you tell God 'no' because He won't explain the reason He wants you to do something, you are actually hindering His blessing. But when you say 'yes' to Him, all of heaven opens to pour out His goodness and reward your obedience.
Every test, every trial, every heartache that's been significant, I can turn it over and see how God has turned it into good no matter what.
Disappointments are inevitable; discouragement is a choice.
Romantic love reaches out in little ways, showing attention and admiration. Romantic love remembers what pleases a woman, what excites her, and what surprises her. Its actions whisper; you are the most special person in my life.
Trusting God means looking beyond what we can see to what God sees.
Dealing with adversity is like preparing for surgery. By putting our faith in what the doctor has said, we believe we will be better off if we have the surgery. But that does not make it any less painful. By submitting to the hand of a surgeon, we are saying that our ultimate goal is health, even at the cost of pain. Adversity is the same way. It is a means to an end. It is God's tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives.
God wants us to seek Him more than anything else, even more than we seek answers to prayer. When we come to God in prayer, sometimes our hearts are so full of what we want that we leave God out. Our minds become consumed with the gift rather than the giver.
Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.
God will never tell us to do something that gratifies the flesh.
Too many Christians have a commitment of convenience. They'll stay faithful as long as it's safe and doesn't involve risk, rejection, or criticism. Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, they check to see which way their friends are going.
Although the church accomplishes many tasks, its only message to the world is the gospel of Christ. Everything else we do is merely an extension of that primary goal. The gospel we offer the lost is superior to every worldly philosophy. Never outdated or in need of correction, it is always sufficient to meet humanity's greatest need: reconciliation with the Creator.
The Bible is clear that those who fail to heed the Lord's discipline - whether nations, cities, or individuals - suffer devastating consequences.
Wisdom is the capacity to see things from God's viewpoint.
The Bible tells us that God will meet all our needs. He feeds the birds of the air and clothes the grass with the splendor of lilies. How much more, then, will He care for us, who are made in His image? Our only concern is to obey the heavenly Father and leave the consequences to Him.
God will never direct us to be prideful, arrogant and unforgiving, immoral or slothful or full of fear. We step into these things because we are insensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit within us.
Attitude and the spirit in which we communicate are as important as the words we say.
The circumstances and events that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch us into periods of intense spiritual growth
Our problems may stay, our circumstances may remain, but we know God is in control. We are focused on His adequacy, not our inadequacy.
The amount of time we spend with Jesus - meditating on His Word and His majesty, seeking His face - establishes our fruitfulness in the kingdom.
God's plan for enlarging His kingdom is so simple - one person telling another about the Savior. Yet we're busy and full of excuses. Just remember, someone's eternal destiny is at stake. The joy you'll have when you meet that person in heaven will far exceed any discomfort you felt in sharing the gospel.
To have God speak to the heart is a majestic experience, an experience that people may miss if they monopolize the conversation and never pause to hear God's responses.
Kindness is not something that we put on for certain occasions, like a piece of jewelry; rather, it is an attribute of God's that He desires to reproduce in us.
Focusing on difficulties intensifies and enlarges the problem. When we focus our attention on God, the problem is put into its proper perspective and it no longer overwhelms us.
Motherhood is a great honor and privilege, yet it is also synonymous with servanthood. Every day women are called upon to selflessly meet the needs of their families. Whether they are awake at night nursing a baby, spending their time and money on less-than-grateful teenagers, or preparing meals, moms continuously put others before themselves.
Take steps each day to be sure your life expresses commitment to Jesus.
One of Satan's most deceptive and powerful ways of defeating us is to get us to believe a lie. And the biggest lie is that there are no consequences to our own doing. Satan will give you whatever you ask for if it will lead you where he ultimately wants you.
The essence of meditation is a period of time set aside to contemplate the Lord, listen to Him, and allow Him to permeate our spirits.
God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to Him.
Thank the Lord for using each person as a tool in your life to deepen your insight into His grace and conforming you to the image of His Son.
In times of defeat, we never know how close we are to victory. In every event of failure, God has planted a seed of success.
If the Lord says to give more than you think you are able to give, know that He will provide for you. Whether things are sailing smoothly or the bottom has dropped out, He is always trustworthy. You can count on Almighty God to keep His everlasting Word.
With God, there is always a future.
As God's children, we are not to be observers; we're to participate actively in the Lord's work. Spectators sit and watch, but we are called to use our spiritual gifts and serve continually.
When we learn from experience, the scars of sin can lead us to restoration and a renewed intimacy with God.
The Holy Spirit's power cannot be harnessed. His power cannot be used to accomplish anything other than the Father's will. He is not a candy dispenser. He is not a vending machine. He is not a genie waiting for someone to rub His lamp the right way. He is holy God.
The gate is small because truth guards the entrance. The way is narrow because the Lord protects us with wise boundaries.
Whatever brings you to your knees in weakness carries the greatest potential for your personal success and spiritual victory.
People don't like the idea of consequences. They want to be able to live their life freely and do what they want to do without any consequences. And we know that's just not the way life is.
Renewing the mind is a little like refinishing furniture. It is a two-stage process. It involves taking off the old and replacing it with the new. The old is the lies you have learned to tell or were taught by those around you; it is the attitudes and ideas that have become a part of your thinking but do not reflect reality. The new is the truth. To renew your mind is to involve yourself in the process of allowing God to bring to the surface the lies you have mistakenly accepted and replace them with truth. To the degree that you do this, your behavior will be transformed.
Jesus set an example for us to follow: a life of loving, obedient service.
The difficulties we face originate from one of three sources. Some are sent to us by the Lord to test our faith, others are the result of Satan's attacks, and still others are due to our own sinful choices.
A Christian has no right being in a fight unless it's a spiritual fight.
If the church marries herself to the spirit of the times, she will find herself a widow in the next generation.
Behavior is the substance of religion. Belief is the substance of relationship.
Suffering prepares you by training you to trust God and know that He is always at work in your life.
When you become consumed by God's call on your life, everything will take on new meaning and significance. You will begin to see every facet of your life - including your pain - as a means through which God can work to bring others to Himself.
As children of a sovereign God, we are never victims of our circumstances.
Each of us will eventually give away all our earthly possessions. How we choose to do so, however, is a reflection of our commitment to the kingdom of God.
When you become an instrument in God's hands as He transfers someone from the realm of darkness into the kingdom of His Son, you make a difference in the person's eternal destiny. Not only that, but Satan also receives a devastating blow.
Nobody else can make us discouraged; it is a choice that we alone make when facing disappointments.
When we take our eyes off the whirl of day-to-day activity and concentrate on honoring Him and following in His way, we find a consistent peace that carries us through both plenty and poverty.
When we stray from His presence, He longs for you to come back. He weeps that you are missing out on His love, protection and provision. He throws His arms open, runs toward you, gathers you up, and welcomes you home.
I'm convinced that the man who has learned to meditate upon the Lord will be able to run on his feet and walk in his spirit. Although he may be hurried by his vocation, that's not the issue. The issue is how fast his spirit is going. To slow it down takes a period of time.
We must never limit God's ability to turn even the worst, most vile experience in our lives into something productive, beneficial and positive.
All of us have areas of weakness. God wants these character flaws to show us how totally dependent we are upon Him. When we handle them properly, they drive us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Lord. But uncontrolled weakness wreaks havoc in a person's life.
No one enjoys feeling weak, whether it is emotionally, spiritually or physically. There is something within the human spirit that wants to resist the thought of weakness. Many times this is nothing more than our human pride at work. Just as weakness carries a great potential for strength, pride carries an equally great potential for defeat.
The Bible reveals the Father's overall plan for the world and provides general guidelines for life. But how can we know His specific plans for us? Listening to God is essential to walking with God.
Helen Keller was blind and deaf when she graduated from college with honors. So what's your problem?
Temptation can be defined as an inducement to do evil. Three powerful forces work together to ruin a believer's character and witness: Satan, the world system, and our own lustful "flesh" tendencies.
Adversity is always unexpected and unwelcomed. It is an intruder and a thief. But in the hands of God, adversity becomes the means through which HIS Supernatural Power is demonstrated.
Of all the things Christ wants for us, loving Him and focusing our attention on Him are the most important.
We are to forgive so that we may enjoy God's goodness without feeling the weight of anger burning deep within our hearts. Forgiveness does not mean we recant the fact that what happened to us was wrong. Instead, we roll our burdens onto the Lord and allow Him to carry them for us.
When God speaks, oftentimes His voice will call for an act of courage on our part.
In giving us children, God places us in a position of both leadership and service. He calls us to give up our lives for someone else's sake - to abandon our own desires and put our child's interests first. Yet, according to His perfect design, it is through this selflessness that we can become truly fulfilled.
You will never go wrong obeying God.
Success is the continuing achievement of becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplishing the goals God has helped you set.
Disappointments will come and go, but discouragement is a choice that you make.
When friends abandoned him, Paul asked God not to count their actions against them. He followed the example of Jesus, who prayed for the Father to forgive His persecutors. What's your response when friends let you down? Forgiveness is the choice that pleases God every time.
God's voice is still and quiet and easily buried under an avalanche of clamour.
Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins.
I think a lot of people, even Christians, are willing to be satisfied with gaining lots and lots of biblical knowledge - and many people go to Bible studies and don't realize it isn't enough to know what's right, it's applying the information and the knowledge that you have.
God has ways of shaking the world when He is at work. He literally caused the ground to quake when Jesus died on the cross.
If we have built on the fragile cornerstones of human wisdom, pride, and conditional love, things may look good for a while, but a weak foundation causes collapse when storms hit.
Think about the comfortable feeling you have as you open your front door. That's but a hint of what we'll feel some day on arriving at the place our Father has lovingly and personally prepared for us in heaven. We will finally - and permanently - be 'at home' in a way that defies description.
The task of the Church after Jesus' resurrection and ascension was to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to all nations.
God blesses us so that we might bless others!
To become God's mighty servants, we must decide whether we will base our life on His priorities or the world's. The two are incompatible.
Since God knows our future, our personalities, and our capacity to listen, He isn't ever going to say more to us than we can deal with at the moment.
If a person becomes content with what is average, minimally acceptable, or satisfactory, she will rarely exert the effort or work toward something that is truly excellent or outstanding.
The main thing to avoid being a casualty is simply this: to have a kind of intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ whereby you're able to hear God speak to your heart, you're sensitive to what He's saying to you to do, and that you're willing to be obedient to Him.
The moment someone chooses to trust in Jesus Christ, his sins are wiped away, and he is adopted into God's family. That individual is set apart as a child of God, with a sacred purpose.
If we walk in the Spirit daily, surrendered to His power, we have the right to expect anything we need to hear from God. The Holy Spirit living within us and speaking to us ought to be the natural, normal lifestyle of believers.
The essence of wisdom, from a practical standpoint, is pausing long enough to look at our lives-invitations, opportunities, relationships-from God's perspective. And then acting on it
Helping someone come to a saving knowledge of Christ is the greatest achievement possible.
If God has positioned us in a certain place, we must leave all the details to Him.
A man can preach no better than he prays.
You have to have courage to be obedient to God.
The reason so many of us struggle so intensely with adversity is that we have yet to adopt God's perspective and priorities.
We are either in the process of resisting God's truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth.
In thinking about His many blessings, you view God's work from a new perspective.
He wants you all to Himself to put His loving, divine arms around you.
Believing you can achieve a goal is vital to reaching a goal.
God is honored by large, difficult, and impossible requests when we ask, seek, knock, and trust our loving Father always to answer for our good.
Relationship is the difference between grace and law.
God's arrows of affliction are sharp and painful so He can get our attention. He won't let His beloved children get away with sin because He knows it robs us of blessings, opportunities, and even character refinement.
There is nothing worse than a life filled with adversity from which nothing good ever comes.
Discipline is something we despise for the moment.... We all look for a place to run, an excuse with which to stall. No one enjoys it. Yet those of us who have endured it know that the fruit it produces and the pain from which it ultimately spares us makes it worth the agony.
Another way Christ affects us is by inspiring our gratitude. He left the glories of heaven in order to become our Savior, and when we recognize that sacrifice, we are filled with thankfulness and praise.
If you have an anxiety lay it down before The Lord
Sin and accountability aren't popular messages. Yet being trendy and well liked is not the point. We're here to carry out the work and mission of God, even when doing so is uncomfortable.
Understand that it is often unwise to forgive face to face. This tends to make the other person feel 'put down' and make you look holier-than-thou.
If we rationalize our problems when He points them out, we will spend less and less time meditating because we won't want to face God in that area of our lives.
The person who has the motivational gift of giving has a tremendous opportunity to be a blessing to others in the body of Christ, to encourage others in the proper use of their finances, and to make the extension of the Gospel possible.
The best way in the world to deceive believers is to cloak a message in religious language and declare that it conveys some new insight from God.
Nations fight against nations, in marriages people fight against each other, children fight against each other. We are in warfare, in a national warfare, and in warfare with each other and with ourselves.
One of the important things about temptation is, if I'm going to deal with it I'm going to have to recognize, this is an area of weakness in my life. I have been tempted here before and before and before.
We're living in a fearful time. Since 9/11 people have become more afraid than before, because of terrorism. There's a lot of confusion about evil, where it's all coming from.
Hope founded upon a human being, a man-made philosophy or any institution is always misplaced... because these things are unreliable and fleeting.
Jesus is our Advocate before God.
American foreign policy and military might have opened an opportunity for the Gospel in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
You may have the gift of giving.
― Charles Stanley Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
