The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning
A force that is both fierce and majestic. A power that is nothing short of furious. Such is God’s intense love for His children.
The Furious Longing of God is the latest tour de force from beloved author and ragamuffin, Brennan Manning.
Hold on tight as you discover the most powerful force in the universe: God’s furious longing for you.
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Some quotes to consider
There is nowhere God won’t go to find us. No country too distant. No terrain too treacherous. No risk too great.
There are no boundaries to where His love will take Him in order to find us, embrace us, and carry us home!
When a person is evoked for who she is, not who she is not, the most often result will be the inner healing of her heart through the touch of affirmation.
Jesus said you are to love one another as I have loved you, a love that will possibly lead to the bloody, anguish gift of yourself, a love that forgives seven times seven, that keeps no record of wrong. This is the criterion, sole norm, the standard of discipleship in the New Israel of God.
The love of Christ embraces all without exception.
I’ve decided that if I had my life to live over again, I would not only climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets; I wouldn’t only jettison my hot water bottle, raincoat, umbrella, parachute, and raft; I would not only go barefoot earlier in the spring and stay out later in the fall; but I would devote not one more minute to monitoring my spiritual growth. No, not one.
To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary. Please, this is not some Pollyanna optimism that is blind to the reality of evil, but rather like a fine radar system that is tuned in to the true, the good, and the beautiful.
All I have learned through trial and error is to stay alert and aware, especially God smiling at our silliness.
The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.
Until the love of God that knows no boundary, limit, or breaking point is internalized through personal decision; until the furious longing of God seizes the imagination; until the heart is conjoined to the mind through sheer grace, nothing happens.
In human beings, love is a quality, a high-prized virtue; in God, love is His identity.
If we continue to view ourselves as moral lepers and spiritual failures, if our lives are shadowed by low self-esteem, shame, remorse, unhealthy guilt, and self-hatred, we reject the teaching of Jesus and cling to our negative self-image.
In the fifth century, St. Augustine wrote this lyrical line: Quia amasti me, fecisti me amabilem. (In loving me, you made me lovable.)
To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary.
When a person is evoked for who she is, not who she is not, the most often result will be the inner healing of her heart through the touch of affirmation.
Jesus looks up and says, “Zacchaeus, come down. I want to have supper in your house today.” Now, when an orthodox Jew, which Jesus was, says “I want to have supper with you,” he’s saying, I want to enter into friendship with you.
Blows and abuse I can take and give back again, but tenderness I cannot bear.
The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creations.
The question is not can we heal? The question, the only question, is will we let the healing power of the risen Jesus flow through us to reach and touch others, so that they may dream and fight and bear and run where the brave dare not go?
The wild, unrestricted love of God is not simply an inspiring idea. When it imposes itself on mind and heart with the stark reality of ontological truth, it determines why and at what time you get up in the morning, how you pass your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, and who you hang with; it affects what breaks your heart, what amazes you, and what makes your heart happy.
For His love is never, never, never based on our performance, never conditioned by our moods—of elation or depression. The furious love of God knows no shadow of alteration or change. It is reliable. And always tender.
Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wondrous things that God dreamed of and achieved for us in Christ Jesus
The revolutionary thinking that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical rethinking and profound emotional readjustment.
Is your own personal prayer life characterized by the simplicity, childlike candor, boundless trust, and easy familiarity of a little one crawling up in Daddy’s lap?
The outstretched arms of Jesus exclude no one.
The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning