Beth Moore quotes

Quotes from Beth Moore Breaking Free

For the believer, the first step of freedom from any stronghold is agreeing with God concerning the personal sin involved. Please understand, the object of our imaginations itself is not always sin. The sin may lie solely in the exaltation of it in our own minds. For example, nothing could be more natural or reflective of the heart of God than a mother’s love for her child. However, if she has passed the bounds of healthy affection to overprotection, obsession, adoration, and idolatry, she has constructed a stronghold. Pg 191

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God loves perfectly. His love is both vocal and demonstrative. He balances blessing and discipline. God’s love is unfailing, so any time we perceive He does not love us, our perceptions are wrong. Anything we perceive about God that does not match up with 1) the truth of Scripture and 2) the portrayal of His character in Scripture- is a lie.When we realize we’ve been believing a lie, our bonds lose their grip. At those times we might pray something like: “I may not feel loved or lovable, but Your Word says You love me so much You gave up Your beloved Son for me. I don’t know why I continue to feel unloved, but at this moment I choose to believe the truth of Your Word. I rebuke the enemy’s attempt to make me doubt Your love. Satan knows the truth will set me free and I have believed his lies over Your Word. I also pray for forgiveness for the sin of unbelief. Help me overcome my unbelief.”

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I …remember the harrowing moment God opened my eyes to see what a lie I had believed. I cried for days.I originally thought this lie was a good thing. My heart, handicapped in childhood, had deluded me. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I eventually bowed down and worshiped it. My only consolation in my idolatry is that I finally allowed Him to peel away my fingers and to my knowledge, have only grasped His hand since.Had I not discovered what a lie was in my right hand, I would never have run to Him to fill up the void it left. I have discovered the glorious satisfaction of only the Lord Jesus Christ can bring. I can truly say to you at this moment that I love Him more than anything or anyone in this world. Jesus is the uncontested love of my life. Yes, I plunged to the depths to discover this level of satisfaction. Sadly, I often learn things the hard way. I pray to settle for nothing less the rest of my days. I am very aware that Satan will constantly cast idols before me. I hope never to forget that the same one I bowed down and worshiped before I could fall to again. Beloved, whatever we are gripping to bring us the satisfaction is a lie- unless it is Christ. He is the Truth that sets us free. Pg 63

from "Inside Out" by Larry Crabb

from Inside Out by Larry Crabb

“The illusion that life in a fallen world is really not too bad must be shattered. When even the best parts of life are exposed as pathetic counterfeits of how things should be, the reality drives us to a level of distress that threatens to utterly undo us. But it’s when we’re on the brink of personal collapse that we’re best able to shift the direction of our soul from self-protection to trusting love. The more deeply we enter into the reality that life without God is sheer desolation, the more fully we an turn toward Him…

The richest love grows in the soil of an unbearable disappointment with life. When we realize life can’t give us what we want, we can better give up our foolish demand that it do so and get on with the noble task of loving as we should. We will no longer need to demand protection from further disappointment. The deepest change will occur in the life of a bold realist who clings to God with a passion only his realistic appraisal of life can generate.” pg 213-14

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“Until we recognize with tears how determined we are to move away from pain and how that determination reflects our blasphemous decision to preserve our own life, we will not be able to identify the subtle ways in which our relational style violates love for others by keeping us safe… We repent by radically shifting our motivation and direction from self-preservation to trust on the basis of the belief that Christ has given and is preserving out life. The fruit of repentance is a changed style of relating that replaces self-protective maneuvering with loving involvement.” 196  

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“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.” 200

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“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.” 204

what do I really gain by continually confessing my spouse’s sins ?

from Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”:

quote:

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If I have a problem in my marriage, what do I really gain by continually confessing my wife’s sins ? By saying I am not responsible, I make myself a powerless victim; I immobilize myself in a negative situation. I also diminish my ability ro influence her- my nagging, accusing, critical attitude only makes her feel validated in her own weakness. My criticism is worse than the conduct I want to correct. My ability to positively impact the situation withers and dies.

If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control- myself. I can stop trying to shape up my wife and work on my own weaknesses . I can focus on being a great marriage partner, a source of unconditional love and support. Hopefully, my wife will feel the power of the proactive example and respond in kind. But whether she does or doesn’t, the most positive way I can influence my situation is to work on myself, on my being.
Pg 89-90

Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem… Don’t argue for other people’s weaknesses. Don’t argue for your own. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it- immediately. Don’t get into a blaming, accusing mode. Work on things you have control over. Work on you. On be.

Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. It’s not what they’re not doing or should be doing that’s the issue. The issue is your own chosen response to the situation and what you should be doing. If you start to think the problem is “out there,” stop yourself. That thought is the problem. People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day will, little by little, expand that freedom.

“But how do you love when you don’t love?” “My friend, love is a verb. Love-the feeling- is a fruit of love, the verb. So love her. Serve her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her. Are you willing to do that?”

Proactive people make love a verb. Love is something you do: the sacrifice you make, the giving of self, like a mother bringing a newborn into the world. If you want to study love, study those who sacrifice for others, even for people who offend or do not love in return. If you are a parent, look at the love you have for the children you sacrificed for. Love is a value that is actualized through loving actions. Proactive people subordinate feelings to values. Love, the feeling, can be recaptured. Pg 80

I know this idea is a dramatic paradigm shift for many people. It is so much easier to blame other people, conditioning, or conditions for our own stagnant situation. But we are responsible- “response-able”- to control our lives and to powerfully influence our circumstances by working on be, on what we are.

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