I love to collect the highlights I make in books. The quotes provide a quick overview of the things that resonated with me as I read. Last year, I read Richard Foster’s book, Prayer. As often happens, the book was timely and much needed during a painful time in our family. The chapters in Foster’s book provided the means to cry with God, to cry out to God, and to process and pray for the situation.

Now I’m reading Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline, and again, it is timely as I begin 2024. Here are highlighted quotes from this book. Maybe they’ll entice you to dive into the path to Spiritual Growth.

Be sure to check back for further quotes from the other chapters

1: The Spiritual Disciplines: Door to Liberation

• The purpose of the Disciplines is liberation from the stifling slavery to self-interest and fear.
• The Spiritual Disciplines are an inward and spiritual reality, and the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life.
• We have only one thing to do, namely, to experience a life of relationship and intimacy with God,
• The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshiping the will.
• God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.
• We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only places us where the change can occur. This is the path of disciplined grace.
• 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.

2: The Discipline of Meditation

• It is this continual focus upon obedience and faithfulness that most clearly distinguishes Christian meditation from its Eastern and secular counterparts.
• God spoke to them not because they had special abilities, but because they were willing to listen.
• Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word.
• He is alive and among us as our Priest to forgive us, our Prophet to teach us, our King to rule us, our Shepherd to guide us.
• What happens in meditation is that we create the emotional and spiritual space which allows Christ to construct an inner sanctuary in the heart.
• …for to be in the presence of God is to change.

3: The Discipline of Prayer

• For those explorers in the frontiers of faith, prayer was no little habit tacked onto the periphery of their lives; it was their lives.
• We would do well to read widely and experience deeply if we desire to know the ways of prayer.
• I determined to learn to pray so that my experience conformed to the words of Jesus rather than try to make his words conform to my impoverished experience.
• the prayer of relinquishment, we are committed to letting go of our will whenever it conflicts with the will and way of God.
• We can determine if we are praying correctly if the requests come to pass. If not, we look for the “block”; perhaps we are praying wrongly, perhaps something within us needs changing, perhaps there are new principles of prayer to be learned, perhaps patience and persistence are needed.
• Attuning ourselves to divine breathings is spiritual work, but without it our praying is vain repetition.
• “A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.”
• We must hear, know, and obey the will of God before we pray it into the lives of others.
• The inner sense of compassion is one of the clearest indications from the Lord that this is a prayer project for you.
• Imagination often opens the door to faith.
• “…coincidences occur much more frequently when I pray.” Archbishop William Temple
• …invite Jesus to walk…touching people on the shoulder and saying, “I love you. My greatest delight would be to forgive you and give you good things. You have beautiful qualities still in the bud that I would unfold if only you will say yes. I’d love to rule your life if you’ll let me.”
• “I want a life of greater, deeper, truer prayer.” Archbishop Tait

Quotes taken from Foster, Richard J.. Celebration of Discipline, Special Anniversary Edition (p. 46). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.