Charles R. Swindoll Quotes

I've tried to plan for my future in the past and it doesn't always work out the way I want it to, so leave it all up to the man upstairs.

Don't plan without God. God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the plans we have made, when we have not taken Him into account.

If you get too attached to how you want it to come out the other side, you freeze. I try to trust that it will work out in the end.

I love the fact that it starts from there, and you don't know where it's gonna go. Wait long enough - love will find you. Everything's a surprise. When you think you've got it all figured out... as Emerson said, the dice of God are always loaded.

I have come to realize that God is sovereign, and there are things I just don't understand.

No one can predict what God is going to do.

You can only have a short sight because things change a lot. You can't plan what the years will bring.

Nothing ever goes to plan. As soon as you are OK with that, everything is much easier.

God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the things we have calculated on without taking Him into account. We get into circumstances which were not chosen by God, and suddenly we find we have been calculating without God; He has not entered in as a living factor. The one thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying is bringing God in as the greatest factor in all our calculations.

Never assume. Never make plans. Keep doing the press-ups and deep knee bends: you'll need all your strength and flexibility when your life suddenly implodes. Maybe it won't — some people do lead enchanted lives — but odds are that it will. Some time.

We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, and He packs our life with surprises all the time.... Leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come.

Do what you feel called to do, but also be prepared to accept that you don't necessarily know what you're going to learn. Be willing to be surprised by forces beyond your control, and realize that a major learning on the journey is the art of surrender.

‎Faith, if it is ever right about anything, is right by accident

We are to make a plan for the day, pray over that plan, and then proceed with that plan. When we are willing to regard the unexpected as God's intervention, we can flex with the new plan, recognizing it as God's plan.

Leave the rest to the gods.

I'm not somebody who plans. There were times I planned a lot in my life, and it never turns out how you plan it. So I think it's important not to. I'm a very spontaneous person.

You can't control everything that comes to you.

I don't know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future.

I say, don't try to fight your own battles because God will do it.

In this business it's difficult to make plans. I think the plans follow you and find you.

You can never plan the future by the past.

You can't plan anything, right? You can try.

It's an exciting life. I don't know where God is leading us. I just know that He opens doors and He closes the doors, and it is always the best for us.

In many ways, the longer I live, I understand that there are so many things outside my control. That's why I believe faith is such a big part of the story. There are so many things that were orchestrated by God, that were put into place to make this perfect storm, that created Linsanity.

Life is a lot easier when you realize that you're not in control of it all.