Larry Crabb Quotes

#1. Many of us place top priority not on becoming Christ like in the middle of our problems but on finding happiness ... I must firmly and consciously by an act of my will reject the goal of becoming happy and adopt the goal of becoming more like the Lord ...

Larry Crabb

#2. Maturity involves two elements: 1) immediate obedience in specific situations and 2) long-range character growth.

Larry Crabb

#3. I hear Jesus telling us to stop negotiating with Him, to stop offering something we think we have in exchange for His blessings.

Larry Crabb

#4. The more clearly we recognize how deep our commitment to self-protection operates in our relational style and the more courageously we face the ugliness of protecting ourselves rather than loving others, the more we'll shift our direction.

Larry Crabb

#5. I assume the Spirit is always whispering, "Abba", to God's children, assuring them that they are safe in His care. And he is continually calling them to become what God saved them to be, solid people, indestructibly alive, hurting perhaps, but consumed with pleasing the Father.

Larry Crabb

#6. In order to meaningfully repent of the ways in which we violate love, we must recognize them. We won't recognize self-protective patterns of relating as sinful violations of love until we face the disappointment in our soul we're determined never to experience again.

Larry Crabb

#7. If we look for ways to get rid of necessary pain, we'll be disillusioned or misled. For people who define real change as the elimination of inevitable struggle, the final chapters will be terribly disappointing.

Larry Crabb

#8. The pain of aloneness and pointlessness is piercing. It demands relief. That single fact - that the pain of living apart from God is unbearable - exposes our sinfulness as horribly grotesque and foolish. We insist on finding relief without coming to God on His terms.

Larry Crabb

#9. We can't always make life work. But we can always draw near to God. There is a different way to approach our problems. There is a NEW WAY to live.

Larry Crabb

#10. There's no higher dream than experiencing God as He moves through every circumstance of life to an eternal encounter with Himself where transformed people will enjoy perfectly loving community around Jesus Christ, the source of Perfect Love.

Larry Crabb

#11. Churches that never deal with the real fight that following My Son requires often grow large but mostly with small Christians.

Larry Crabb

#12. I once heard worship defined as celebrating the availability of God.

Larry Crabb

#13. When hints of sadness creep into our soul, we must not flee into happy or distracting thoughts. Pondering the sadness until it becomes overwhelming can lead us to deep change in the direction of our being from self-preservation to grateful worship.

Larry Crabb

#14. The Christian always has reason to celebrate. When we fail, celebrate His grace. When we are blessed, celebrate His mercy. When others reject us, celebrate His love.

Larry Crabb

#15. The central truth that serves as the platform for Christian marriage - and for all Christian relationships - is that in Christ we are at every moment eternally loved and genuinely significant.

Larry Crabb

#16. Change from the inside out involves a steadfast gaze upon our Lord that's life changing because it reflects a deep turning from a commitment to self-sufficiency. Without repentance, a look at Christ provides only the illusion of comfort.

Larry Crabb

#17. A man looks at a "sex goddess" and lusts. A man looks at a feminine woman and worships.

Larry Crabb

#18. We were designed to love and when we do, something good develops inside. We feel clean, rich, whole. Even better, we become less concerned with how we feel and more concerned with the lives of others.

Larry Crabb

#19. The core problem is not that we are too passionate about bad things, but that we are not passionate enough
about good things.

Larry Crabb

#20. The goal of our sanctification is that we place Christ on display in the way we love others.

Larry Crabb

#21. God is always working to make His children aware of a dream that remains alive beneath the rubble of every shattered dream, a new dream that when realized will release a new song, sung with tears, till God wipes them away and we sing with nothing but joy in our hearts.

Larry Crabb

#22. We'll never abandon ourselves to the Spirit as long as we think we can change without Him.

Larry Crabb

#23. The real power in helping somebody to be transformed is not to do something to them but to join with them.

Larry Crabb

#24. Face the hard questions that life requires you to ask. Gather with other travelers on the narrow road, pilgrims who acknowledge their confusion and feel their fears. Then, together, live those questions in My Presence.

Larry Crabb

#25. Other forms of relating to God that have unique value in connecting us to Him include contemplative prayer and centering prayer.

Larry Crabb

#26. The root of all our personal and emotional difficulties is a lack of togetherness ... I therefore believe that the surest route to overcoming problems and becoming the people we were meant to be is reconnecting with God and with our community.

Larry Crabb

#27. It is the understanding of others and the awareness of their needs, that the ambassador of CHRIST should strive to cultivate

Larry Crabb

#28. That day has come. God is now dealing with us in a new way. Our badness is no longer the obstacle to blessing. Nor is our goodness the condition for blessing.

Larry Crabb

#29. The degree to which we openly express our feelings should be governed, not by fear of reprisal, but by our commitment to loving others.

Larry Crabb

#30. The problem sincere Christians have with God often comes down to a wrong understanding of what this life is meant to provide.

Larry Crabb

#31. I've practiced centering prayer. I've contemplatively prayed. I've prayed liturgically ... I've benefited from each, and I still do. In ways you'll see, elements of each style are still with me.

Larry Crabb

#32. A vision we give to others of who and what they could become has power when it echoes what the spirit has already spoken into their souls.

Larry Crabb

#33. It is regrettable that many Christian psychologists talk more about such things as unconscious motivation and emotional damage than they do about sin and responsibility.

Larry Crabb