Quotes to live by?

Title: Quotes to live by?
Artwork by: Georgy Roy (@gy_roy)
Description: We are all familiar with these quotes. You might have seen them in a hand-lettered image while scrolling through Instagram, or seen them printed on a notebook or a t-shirt. Perhaps a well-meaning friend might have shared them with you as advice. While they seem harmless and even logical at first sight, have we ever thought about whether these quotes are biblical?

Let’s take some time to think deeper about these quotes and how they may have subconsciously shaped our perspectives of life. If these are quotes you identify with or subscribe to, have you unintentionally adopted the patterns of this world?

Do What You Love

We all have something we are passionate about. We have wants and desires, goals and dreams we’d like to achieve. It’s not wrong to have desires or dreams. But if we live by the idea that we should “do what we love”, we can easily start to put ourselves first before others, and even leave God out of the equation.

Whether we’re making small or big decisions, may we continually seek God’s wisdom to lead and guide us, so that we will do not just what we love–but also what’s in line with God’s plan and purposes for our lives.

Seek Pleasure, Avoid Pain

We often seek instant gratification because it brings us pleasure. Even though we know that these feelings don’t last, our hearts still gravitate towards the things that we associate with pleasure. Sometimes, we may even do so to avoid pain.

However, pain is an inevitable part of our lives–and if we are willing to bring our pain before God, we will discover that there is purpose to our pain, and it can help us grow and become more mature in Christ.

What are the pleasures we’re seeking today? Are they temporary pleasures or ones that will lead to eternal joy?

Just be yourself

“Let your hair down.”
“It’s your life, do what you want.”
“Don’t change yourself for someone else.”

We’re often told that it is important to be authentic and true to ourselves. We may even justify our sins as something we’re “born with” or a part of our personalities. But if we look deeper into what it means to “just be yourself” we might discover that we’re missing out on the opportunity to grow in Christlikeness each day.

 Let us reflect on our attitudes, words and actions regularly and strive to be who Christ wants us to be—people conformed to His image.

 What is God revealing to you about yourself? How will you look towards God’s standards?

Live in the moment

How often have you looked back on times when you “lived in the moment”? Did those decisions fill your heart with joy or regret? Sometimes, in our attempt to “live in the moment”, we may be tempted to give in to sin and its false promise of happiness–only to find ourselves disappointed.

God’s Word gives us the perfect antidote to that–instead of living in the moment, why not live for eternity? May we echo the words of Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Are you living just for the moment, or building a life that will last through eternity?