Francis Chan Quotes

God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.

~ Francis Chan

Jesus didn't speak of hell so that we could study, debate and write books about it. He gave us these passages so that we would live holy lives. Jesus evidently hates it when we tear into our brothers or sisters with demeaning words, words that fail to honor the people around us as the beautiful image-bearing creatures that they are.

~ Francis Chan

But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.

~ Francis Chan

The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time.

~ Francis Chan

‎Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people he has made?

~ Francis Chan

The irony is that while God doesn't need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don't really want Him most of the time. He treasures us and anticipates our departure from this earth to be with Him-and we wonder, indifferently, how much we have to do for Him to get by.

~ Francis Chan

Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves. His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can't contain Him. Isn't it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?

~ Francis Chan

True faith manifests itself through our actions.

~ Francis Chan

[Y]ou have to stop loving and pursuing Christ in order to sin. When you are pursuing love, running toward Christ, you do not have opportunity to wonder, *Am I doing this right?* or *Did I serve enough this week?* When you are running toward Christ, you are freed up to serve, love, and give thanks without guilt, worry or fear. As long as you are running, you're safe.

~ Francis Chan

[at CMC West Coast 2011, on 1 Samuel 14] If just a few of you would step up and be like Jonathan ... as you step out in faith, you know what's going to happen? There'll be people like Saul who'll say, God's doing something through that guy, God's doing something through that girl. I want to be a part of that.

~ Francis Chan

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.

~ Francis Chan

It is easy to become disillusioned with the circumstances of our lives compared to others'. But in the presence of God, He gives us a deeper peace and joy that transcends it all.

~ Francis Chan

We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.

~ Francis Chan

Our greatest fear as individuals & as a church should not be of failure, but of suceeding at things in life that dont really matter.

~ Francis Chan

We will always find ourselves in trouble when we get comfortable with things as they are.

~ Francis Chan

Frederick Buechner writes, “Intellectually we all know that we will die but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as thought it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever.

~ Francis Chan

You must determine your goal. What matters most? Winning arguments? Or resembling Christ? Even in the heat of an argument we should be asking ourselves if we are acting like Christ.

~ Francis Chan

God exists outside of time, and since we are within time, there is no way we will ever totally grasp that concept.

~ Francis Chan

And your own heart generates enough pressure as it pumps blood throughout your body that it could squirt blood up to 30 feet. (I’ve never tried this, and I don’t recommend it.)

~ Francis Chan

The one who wins the argument is usually the one who acts less like Christ.

~ Francis Chan

If you’d rather watch your kids grow up than see the face of your Savior today, you don’t grasp the beauty of God. If you worry about what would happen to your children if you were gone, you don’t understand the providence of God.

~ Francis Chan

Arguments escalate when we want to be right more than we want to be CHRIST. It's easy to get blinded in the heat of disagreement. Soon, all we want is to win. Even if victory requires sin. The one who wins the argument is usually the one who acts LESS like Christ.

~ Francis Chan

More than any other attribute of Jesus, his humility is the key to a healthy marriage. If two people make it their goal to imitate the humility of Christ, everything else will take care of itself.

~ Francis Chan

God is the only being who is good, and the standards are set by Him. Because God hates sin, He has to punish those guilty of sin. Maybe that's not an appealing standard. But to put it bluntly, when you get your own universe, you can make your own standards.

~ Francis Chan

The verses in the Bible are more than good teachings, they possess power.

~ Francis Chan

We have a God who is a Creator, not a duplicator.

~ Francis Chan

We are scared to make mistakes, so we fret over figuring out God’s will. We wonder what living according to His will would actually look and feel like, and we are scared to find out. We forget that we were never promised a 20-year plan of action; instead, God promises multiple times in Scripture never to leave or forsake us. God wants us to listen to His Spirit on a daily basis, and even throughout the day … My hope is that instead of searching for “God’s will for my life,” each of us would learnt to seek hard after “the Spirit’s leading in my life today.

~ Francis Chan

The God of the universe--the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor--loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss.

~ Francis Chan

...there is still a need for those of us nestled deep within the Christian bubble to look beyond the status quo and critically assess the degree to which we are really living biblically.

~ Francis Chan

Lukewarm living and claiming Christ's name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God.

~ Francis Chan

True faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His Promises.

~ Francis Chan

We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.

~ Francis Chan

The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His.

~ Francis Chan

What we do reverberates through the heavens and into eternity.

~ Francis Chan

Not being able to fully understand God is frustrating but it is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending. What a stunted, insignificant god that would be! If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. God is so much bigger, so far beyond our time-encased, air/food/sleep-dependent lives.

~ Francis Chan

Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?

~ Francis Chan

I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit's leading on a daily basis. Christ said its better for us that the Spirit came and I want to live like that is true. I don't want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly.

~ Francis Chan

It is easy to use the phrase 'God's will for my life' as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. ... My hope is that instead of searching for 'God's will for my life' each of us would learn to seek hard after 'the Spirit's leading in my life today.' May we learn to pray for an open and willing heart, to surrender to the Spirit's leading with that friend, child, spouse, circumstance, or decision in our lives right now.

~ Francis Chan

None of us is beyond the task of missions...The question is not whether or not we will be working to spread the gospel around the world, but what role we will play in this.

~ Francis Chan

With my natural communication abilities, I could probably gather a crowd even without the Spirit.

~ Francis Chan