Mark Batterson's books just keep getting better and better. This one is called Soulprint and is all about being who God created you to be. God designed you to be someone unique and it's up to you to be that person rather than running after some other identity.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
- Uniqueness is God's gift to you, and uniqueness is your gift to God.
- You were created to worship God in a way that no one else can. How? By living a life no one else can–your life. You have a unique destiny to fulfill, and no one can take your place. You play an irreplaceable role in God's grand narrative. But fulfilling your true destiny starts with discovering your true identity. And therein lies the challenge.
- Our true identities get buried beneath the mistakes we've made, the insecurities we've acquired, and the lies we've believed.
- We're held captive by others' expectations.
- Instead of narrating our own lines in the first person, we live second-person lives by allowing others to narrate our lives for us. And that is hypocrisy at its worst.
- To see yourself as anything other than God's masterpiece is to devalue and distort your true identity.
- Jesus didn't die just to get us off the hook. He also died to resurrect the person we were destined to be before sin distorted the image of God in us.
- Every past experience is preparation for some future opportunity.
- And it's not until you find yourself facing the biggest challenge of your life that God reveals how and when and where He prepared you. That's when you recognize that the battle isn't won on the battlefield. It's won or lost long before that.
- In God's grand scheme, it's never about orchestrating the right circumstances. It's always about becoming the right person. And sometimes the worst of circumstances brings out the best in us!
- Our memories can either empower us to live by faith or imprison us to live by fear.
- I don't want to rain on your parade, but let me offer a warning. When you get excited about God, don't expect everybody to get excited about your excitement. Why? Your intensity confronts their passivity. When you completely yield yourself to God, it convicts the unconsecrated by disrupting their spiritual status quo. Some people will be inspired by what God is doing in your life, but others will mask their conviction with criticism.
- The only perfect mirror is Scripture. And the more you read it, the more you will reflect God.
- If you want to discover your soulprint, you've got to begin and end with Scripture.
Soulprint really spoke to where I've been in my life over the last few years. Reading Soulprint gave me a renewed passion to pursue what God has uniquely called me to be and do.
Soulprint by Mark Batterson is available at Amazon or check your favorite bookstore.
{Material Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.}