Top 280 Brennan Manning Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me.”

— Brennan Manning

52. “God is loving us – you and me – this moment, just as we are and not as we should be.”

— Brennan Manning

53. “The ragamuffin gospel reveals that Jesus forgives sins, including the sins of the flesh; that He is comfortable with sinners who remember how to show compassion; but that He cannot and will not have a relationship with pretenders in the Spirit.”

— Brennan Manning

54. “My trust in God flows out of the experience of his loving me, day in and day out, whether the day is stormy or fair, whether I’m sick or in good health, whether I’m in a state of grace or disgrace. He comes to me where I live and loves me as I am.”

— Brennan Manning

55. “The god who exacts the last drop of blood from his Son so that his just anger, evoked by sin, may be appeased, is not the God revealed by and in Jesus Christ. And if he is not the God of Jesus, he does not exist.”

— Brennan Manning

56. “Do you honestly believe God likes you, not just loves you because theologically God has to love you?”

— Brennan Manning

57. “I believe that the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans and Democrats. The real difference is between the aware and the unaware.”

— Brennan Manning

58. “Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise.”

— Brennan Manning

59. “I knew there was only one place to go. I sank down into the center of my soul, grew still, and listened to the Rabbi’s heartbeat.”

— Brennan Manning

60. “We even refuse to be our true self with God- and then wonder why we lack intimacy with him.”

— Brennan Manning

61. “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” – 2 Corinthians 3:16-18.”

— Brennan Manning

62. “Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity, personality, and reality. It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love and communion.”

— Brennan Manning

63. “Anyone we come in contact with, we either offer them life, or we drain them.”

— Brennan Manning

64. “The only kind of love that helps anyone grow is unconditional love.”

— Brennan Manning

65. “Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it.”

— Brennan Manning

66. “The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.”

— Brennan Manning

67. “Those who have the disease called Jesus will never be cured.”

— Brennan Manning

68. “Prayer is first and foremost an act of love.”

— Brennan Manning

69. “Trust is that rare and priceless treasure that wins us the affection of our heavenly Father.”

— Brennan Manning

70. “When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.”

— Brennan Manning

71. “Today on planet Earth, may you experience the wonder and beauty of yourself as Abba’s Child and temple of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.”

— Brennan Manning

72. “What makes a genius? The ability to see. To see what? The butterfly in a caterpillar, the eagle in an egg, the saint in a selfish person, life in death, unity in separation, God in the human and human in God and suffering as the form in which the incomprehensibility of God himself appears.”

— Brennan Manning

73. “The unwounded life bears no resemblance to the Rabbi.”

— Brennan Manning

74. “God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don’t need to apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to Him. I can accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness.”

— Brennan Manning

75. “When being is divorced from doing, pious thoughts become an adequate substitute for washing dirty feet.”

— Brennan Manning

76. “For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.”

— Brennan Manning

77. “The gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we can’t save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient.”

— Brennan Manning

78. “Jesus reveals a God who does not demand but who gives; who does not oppress but who raises up; who does not wound but who heals; who does not condemn but forgives.”

— Brennan Manning

79. “Do the truth quietly without display.”

— Brennan Manning

80. “No man can adequately reach and explain a single word of God with all his words.”

— Brennan Manning

81. “Though it is true that the church must always dissociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping any sinner at a distance.”

— Brennan Manning

82. “Without exposure to potential failure, there is no risk.”

— Brennan Manning

83. “A trusting heart is forgiven and, in turn, forgives.”

— Brennan Manning

84. “Faith means wanting God and wanting to want nothing else.”

— Brennan Manning

85. “I am wonderfully content with a God who does not deal with me as my sins deserve.”

— Brennan Manning

86. “The gospel will persuade no one unless it has so convicted us that we are transformed by it.”

— Brennan Manning

87. “The secret of the mystery is: God is always greater. No matter how great we think Him to be, His love is always greater.”

— Brennan Manning

88. “All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If He wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is His concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that.”

— Brennan Manning

89. “On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars.”

— Brennan Manning

90. “We encounter God in the ordinariness of life: not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences, but in our simple presence in life.”

— Brennan Manning

91. “One of life’s greatest paradoxes is that it’s in the crucible of pain and suffering that we become tender. Not all pain and suffering, certainly. If that were the case, the whole world would be tender, since no one escapes pain and suffering. To these elements must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love and the willingness to remain vulnerable. Together they lead to wisdom and tenderness.”

— Brennan Manning

92. “The first step in faith is to stop thinking about God at the time of prayer.-.”

— Brennan Manning

93. “Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace.”

— Brennan Manning

94. “To be alive is to be broken. And to be broken is to stand in need of grace. Honesty keeps us in touch with our neediness and the truth that we are saved sinners. There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are.”

— Brennan Manning

95. “A man doesn’t grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideal. The years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideal wrinkles his soul.”

— Brennan Manning

96. “If in our hearts we really don’t believe that God loves us as we are, if we are still tainted by the lie that we can do something to make God love us more, we are rejecting the message of the cross.”

— Brennan Manning

97. “Only reckless confidence in a Source greater than ourselves can empower us to forgive the woulds inflicted by others.”

— Brennan Manning

98. “The cultural propaganda embodied in two liquor advertisements, “Living well is the best revenge” and “Sip it with arrogance,” have a curious, perhaps demonic appeal. Consumerism indeed has its own spirituality.”

— Brennan Manning

99. “The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust.”

— Brennan Manning

100. “One thing we do know: We don’t comprehend the love of Jesus Christ.”

— Brennan Manning