Mark Batterson

If you want to REPEAT history, do the way it's always been done. If you want to MAKE history, do it the way it's never been done before. The solution to our problems is very rarely MORE or LESS of the same. It's DARING to be different. It's DARING to dream again.

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It's time to DREAM again! We're believing God for nothing less than Revival, Reformation, and Renaissance in our nation, in our generation. The capacity to dream is part of the image of God, and the supernatural byproduct of a Spirit-filled life. Show me the size of your dream, and I'll show you the size of your God. It's time to dream big, pray hard, and think long!

The Hebrew word for peace is SHALOM. Shalom is RELATIONAL HARMONY and it’s four-dimensional. It’s right relationship with God, Self, Others, and Creation. How do we experience the peace that passes understanding? First and foremost, peace is a PERSON. His name is Jesus, the Prince of Peace. If you want to experience shalom, there are three keys: 1) Confess Your Sin 2) Love Your Enemies 3) Prophesy Your Praise

One key to making and breaking HABITS is making and breaking RULES. Rules help you establish boundaries and priorities. Rules help you establish rituals and routines. A RULE OF LIFE consists of four quadrants: 1) Core Beliefs 2) Core Values 3) Life Goals 4) Daily Habits. Collectively, they become the guardrails and guidelines that help you get where God wants you to go.

There is nothing easy about HABIT FORMATION. You have to fight for your health, fight for your marriage, fight for your convictions. How? 1. Do it SCARED 2. Do it DIFFICULT 3. Do it DIFFERENT 4. Do it NOW. The good news? When we get on our knees, God fights our battles for us!

Show me your HABITS and I’ll show you your FUTURE. Destiny is not a mystery. Destiny is DAILY HABITS. Habit formation is one dimension of spiritual formation. You have to make or break the habits that make or break you, with the help of the Holy Spirit. The good news? You are one habit away from a totally different life! The key? Do it for a day!

The Best is Yet to Come is NOT wishing on a star, hoping your luck will change or waiting to win the lottery. If you keep doing what you’ve done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten. Your life is perfectly designed for the results you're getting! The good news? You are ONE DECISION away from a totally different life. God can deliver you in a day, but you have to back it up with daily habits.

In psychology, mental health has a scale from FLOURISHING to DEPRESSION. FLOURISHING is evidenced by things like optimism and empathy and authenticity. DEPRESSION is evidenced by things like hopelessness and helplessness. In between FLOURISHING and DEPRESSION, there is what Adam Grant calls “the neglected middle child of mental health,” and it may be the “the dominant emotion of 2021.” Languishing is basically BLAH. It's a feeling of apathy. It lacks focus, motivation, and vision. There are no easy answers or quick fixes, but there is a way out.

We live at the intersection of two theologies, two realities. The faithfulness of God is pursuing from the past—SO FAR SO GOD. And the sovereignty of God is setting us up for the future. We live forwards, but God is working backward. God is ordering our footsteps. God is preparing good works. We live in a fallen world, a broken world, but heaven is invading earth right here, right now. We don’t believe in happily ever after. We believe in something so much bigger and better and longer—happily FOREVER after. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

When did we start believing that God wants to send us to SAFE PLACES to do EASY THINGS at CONVENIENT TIMES with NICE PEOPLE? Newsflash. Jesus didn’t die to KEEP US SAFE. Jesus died to MAKE US DANGEROUS. The will of God isn’t an INSURANCE PLAN. It’s a DARING PLAN. And the complete surrender of our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is not radical. It’s normal. The problem? Our normal is so subnormal that normal seems abnormal. Jesus made no bones about it: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”