Richard Foster Quotes

#1. I determined to learn to pray so that my experience conforms to the words of Jesus rather than try to make his words conform to my impoverished experience.

Richard Foster

#2. Supremely, spiritual directors/mentors/pastors are persons who have a sense of being 'established' in God. Otherwise they are too dangerous to be allowed into the soul space of others.

Richard Foster

#3. The Bible is the means through which we are introduced to Jesus and invited to follow Him in the life of humility and service.

Richard Foster

#4. In the context of Quaker worship, it is perfectly appropriate for any person in the congregation to speak a timely word from the Lord.

Richard Foster

#5. There is a sense of call to take leadership roles. You're serving people and submitting to God as best you can.

Richard Foster

#6. Pride is one of the socially acceptable sins in some corners of the evangelical culture. It's just straight-out ego gratification - how important I am; whether my name gets on the building or on the TV program or in the magazine article.

Richard Foster

#7. The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son.

Richard Foster

#8. In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered people. All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the power of the kingdom of God.

Richard Foster

#9. The quiet power of a life transformed by the grace of God is so explosive that it can redirect the course of human events

Richard Foster

#10. In spiritual direction there is absolutely no domination or control.

Richard Foster

#11. We today yearn for prayer and hide from prayer. We are attracted to it and repelled by it.

Richard Foster

#12. Forgiveness does not mean that we will cease to hurt. The wounds are deep, and we may hurt for a very long time. Just because we continue to experience emotional pain does not mean that we failed to forgive.

Richard Foster

#13. Spiritual direction involves a process through which one person helps another person understand what God is doing and saying.

Richard Foster

#14. Spiritual direction is an interpersonal relationship in which we learn how to grow, live, and love in the spiritual life.

Richard Foster

#15. When we genuinely believe that inner transformation is God's work and not ours, we can put to rest our passion to set others straight.

Richard Foster

#16. We all learn submission because we all have 'bosses', whether we're presidents of companies or not. The easiest place to learn it is in family.

Richard Foster

#17. We bless the organized church structures and their meetings. But if there are 10,000 others that meet outside of these ecclesiastical structures, that's wonderful, too. The kingdom of God moves forward in lots and lots of ways.

Richard Foster