60 Max Lucado Quotes from Some of His Popular Books

By Stephanie Kirby | Published June 16, 2022

Enjoy the words of the popular author in these Max Lucado quotes.

Max Lucado is a highly successful author.

He has sold over 120 million copies in over 50 different languages.

He is also a pastor who has worked to help plant churches.

The books that he writes originate from his sermon series.

Max Lucado has received multiple forms of recognition for the work that he does and has been a guest on many different shows.

The Max Lucado quotes below include words of wisdom, faithful encouragement, and instruction for living a Christian life and finding the peace that you are looking for.

Don’t forget to also check out these Ludwig Wittgenstein quotes that will make you think.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement.

Read more related content on our inspirational quotes category page.

Max Lucado quotes from his book When God Whispers Your Name

1. “As soon as you can, pay your debts. As long as you can, give the benefit of the doubt. As much as you can, give thanks. He’s already given us more than we deserve.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: Doing these few simple things can help reduce stress in your life, and improve your mental well-being. Don’t owe people, be trusting, and be grateful. Also, be willing to forgive. Set boundaries, and don’t let people walk all over you, but do your best to live a life like this will help you find peace!

2. “The past does not have to be your prison. You have a voice in your destiny. You have a say in your life. You have a choice in the path you take.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: The past can shape who you are. Sometimes, the past is good and gives you a decent framework. Other times, it is awful, and instead of a framework on how to live you, get a guideline of what not to do. That definitely makes finding your voice in your destiny harder. Deciding the right path might mean you have to a bunch of extra work, but you do have a choice on which path you choose.

3. “Conflict is inevitable but combat is optional.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: Conflict of some kind is truly inevitable. It might be internal conflict, conflict with another person, or larger scale conflict with multiple people. However, how you respond to that conflict it always your choice. You could walk away, you could use your words, you could get help and find a mediator, or you could enter combat. Choose wisely!

4. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these, I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek his grace.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: What do you commit your day to? Each of these are worthy goals especially love, kindness, and patience. However, it is important to recognize that regardless of how noble the goal, you might not always reach it! Give yourself some grace to make mistakes.

5. “Be a child again. Flirt. Giggle. Dip your cookies in your milk. Take a nap. Say you’re sorry if you hurt someone. Chase a butterfly. Be a child again.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: Children see the world in an innocent and simple way. Much of that outlook can help us be less stressed as adults. We call it practicing gratitude, enjoying the simple things, and living in the moment. ‘Be a child again’ is a perfect way to enjoy life!

6. “Even though you may not understand how God works, you know he does.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: This is the literal definition of faith: complete trust or confidence in someone or something. For the faithful believers of God, they do not need to understand or see God to believe that he is a driving force in their lives.

7. “We learn brevity from Jesus. His greatest sermon can be read in eight minutes. His best-known story can be read in ninety seconds. He summarized prayer in five phrases. He silenced accusers with one challenge. He rescued a soul with one sentence. He summarized the Law in three verses and reduced all his teachings to one command. He made his point and went home.” – Max Lucado

8. “I think it’s noteworthy that the Almighty didn’t act high and mighty. The Holy One wasn’t holier-than-thou. The One who knew it all wasn’t a know-it-all. The One who made the stars didn’t keep his head in them. The One who owns all the stuff of earth never strutted it.” – Max Lucado

9. “For the next twelve hours, I will be exposed to the day’s demands. It is now that I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I’m free to choose. And so I choose. I choose love . . . No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves. I choose joy . . . I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance.” – Max Lucado

10. “For that’s what faith is. Faith is trusting what the eye can’t see. Eyes see the prowling lion. Faith sees Daniel’s angel. Eyes see storms. Faith sees Noah’s rainbow. Eyes see giants. Faith sees Canaan.” – Max Lucado

Max Lucado quotes from his book 3:16 The Numbers Of Hope

11. “We will never be cleansed until we confess we are dirty. And we will never be able to wash the feet of those who have hurt us until we allow Jesus, the one we have hurt, to wash ours.” – Max Lucado

12. “Jesus spoke of hell often. Thirteen percent of his teachings refer to eternal judgment and hell.4 Two-thirds of his parables relate to resurrection and judgment.5 Jesus wasn’t cruel or capricious.” – Max Lucado

13. “Isn’t it enough that these hands will be pierced in the morning? Must they scrub grime tonight? And the disciples . . . do they deserve to have their feet washed?” – Max Lucado

14. “The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. And God’s treatment is prescribed in John 3:16.” – Max Lucado

15. “He planted a one-word caution sign between you and hell’s path: perish. “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus spoke of hell often. Thirteen percent of his teachings refer to eternal judgment and hell.4 Two-thirds of his parables relate to resurrection and judgment 5 Jesus wasn’t cruel or capricious, but he was blunt. His candor stuns.” – Max Lucado

16. “You do things God does. Think. Question. Reflect. You blueprint buildings, chart sea crossings, and swallow throat lumps when your kids say their alphabet. You, like Adam, have a soul.” – Max Lucado

17. “The Waves Are Listening “Even the wind and the waves obey him!” —MARK 4:41 Jesus and the disciples are in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee. A storm arises suddenly, and what was placid becomes violent—monstrous waves rise out of the sea and slap the boat.” – Max Lucado

18. “Hell, like heaven, is a location, not a state of mind, not a metaphysical dimension of floating spirits, but an actual place populated by physical beings.” – Max Lucado

19. “Mark it down: God loves you with an unearthly love. You can’t win it by being winsome. You can’t lose it by being a loser. But you can be blind enough to resist it.” – Max Lucado

20. “You will be at your best forever, Even now you have good moments. Occasional glimpses of your heavenly self. When you change your baby’s diaper, forgive your boss’s temper, tolerate your spouse’s moodiness, you display traces of saintliness.” – Max Lucado

Max Lucado quotes from his book, Cure For The Common Life: Living In Your Sweet Spot

21. “When God gives an assignment, he also gives the skill. Study your skills, then, to reveal your assignment.” – Max Lucado

22. “The only mistake is not to risk making one.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: Mistakes teach us more than our successes ever will. Without taking risks, and learning along the way, you can not move the needle closer to your dreams. Be brave enough to believe in your purpose and your goals, and take you chances!

23. “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: This quote talks about the importance of reflection, meditation, and self-awareness. When we reflect quietly on the things going on in our lives, we can learn lessons and find motivation. Meditation helps us lives in the moment. Self-awareness will help ensure you are walking the path you actually want in life. So, find a quiet spot and rest!

24. “Look back over your life. What have you consistently done well? What have you loved to do? Stand at the intersection of your affections and successes and find your uniqueness.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: This is an excellent way to figure out what you value in life. Think about the moments that make you happy. When you feel proudest about yourself, what are you doing? We all are unique and can bring something special to the world around us.

25. “Don’t worry about skills you don’t have. Don’t covet strengths others do have. Just extract your uniqueness.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: You have a set of skills, values, and talents that is unique to you. Let those shine! Also, don’t compare yourself to others because it just steals your joy! If there is a skill that you want to have, then take the steps to learn it!

26. “You cannot be anything you want to be. But you can be everything God wants you to be.” – Max Lucado

27. “You are the only you God made… God made you and broke the mold.” – Max Lucado

28. “When God gives an assignment, he also gives the skill. Study your skills, then, to reveal your assignment.” – Max Lucado

29. “If you aren’t you, we don’t get you.” – Max Lucado

30. “He made you you-nique.” – Max Lucado

Max Lucado quotes from his book, He Chose The Nails: What God Did To Win Your Heart

31. “There is no one God won’t use.” – Max Lucado

32. “This is why he refused to close his fist. He saw the list! What kept him from resisting? This warrant, this tabulation of your failures. He knew the price of those sins was death. He knew the source of those sins was you, and since he couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without you, he chose the nails.” – Max Lucado

33. “If the Bible is called the Good Book, it’s not because its people are. Blood flows as freely through the stories as the ink through the quills that penned them.” – Max Lucado

34. “Can you imagine the restaurant host removing his tuxedo coat and offering it to me? Jesus does. We’re not talking about an ill-fitting, leftover jacket. He offers a robe of seamless purity and dons my patchwork coat of pride, greed, and selfishness. “He changed places with us” (Gal. 3:13). He wore our sin so we could wear his righteousness.” – Max Lucado

35. “And sometimes, no, oftentimes, we allow those mistakes to keep us from God. Our guilty conscience becomes a curtain that separates us from God. As a result, we hide from our Master.” – Max Lucado

36. “Practically put, we love our neighbor and refrain from gossip. We refuse to cheat on taxes and spouses and do our best to love people who are tough to love. Do we do this in order to be saved? No. These are “the good things that result from being saved.” – Max Lucado

37. “God can turn any tragedy into a triumph, if only you will wait and watch.” – Max Lucado

38. “The fruit of sin is thorns—spiny, prickly, cutting thorns. I emphasize the “point” of the thorns to suggest a point you may have never considered: if the fruit of sin is thorns, isn’t the thorny crown on Christ’s brow a picture of the fruit of our sin that pierced his heart?” – Max Lucado

39. “But that was before the curse before the shadow fell across the garden of Adam before the shadow fell across the heart of Adam. And ever since the curse, we’ve been different. Beastly. Ugly. Defiant. Angry. We do things we know we shouldn’t do and wonder why we did them.” – Max Lucado

40. “We are at our best when we are giving. In fact, we are most like God when we are giving.” – Max Lucado

Max Lucado quotes from his book, Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear

41. “Feed your fears and your faith will starve. Feed your faith, and your fears will.” – Max Lucado

42. “Fear creates a form of spiritual amnesia.” – Max Lucado

43. “Fear corrodes our confidence in God’s goodness. We begin to wonder if love lives in heaven. If God can sleep in our storms if his eyes stay shut when our eyes grow wide if he permits storms after we got on his boat, does he care? Fear unleashes a swarm of doubts, anger-stirring doubts. Fear at its center is a perceived loss of control.” – Max Lucado

44. “Christ-followers contract malaria, bury children, and battle addictions, and, as a result, face fears. It’s not the absence of storms that sets us apart. It’s whom we discover in the storm: an unstirred Christ.” – Max Lucado

45. “The parched soil of fear needs steady rain.” – Max Lucado

46. “Fear, at its center, is a perceived loss of control. When life spins wildly, we grab for a component of life we can manage: our diet, the tidiness of a house, the armrest of a plane, or, in many cases, people. The more insecure we feel, the meaner we become.” – Max Lucado

47. “When safety becomes our god, we worship the risk-free life. Can the safety lover do anything great? Can the risk-averse accomplish noble deeds? For God? For others? No. The fear-filled cannot love deeply. Love is risky. They cannot give to the poor. Benevolence has no guarantee of return. The fear-filled cannot dream wildly. What if their dreams sputter and fall from the sky? The worship of safety emasculates greatness. No wonder Jesus wages such a war against fear. His” – Max Lucado

48. “Fear of insignificance creates the result it dreads, arrives at the destination it tries to avoid, facilitates the scenario it disdains.” – Max Lucado

49. “Fear may fill our world, but it doesn’t have to fill our hearts.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: There are things in the world that are scary and beyond our control. However, there are also our own fears which are within our control as they are part of our thoughts, behaviors, and actions. If you can be brave enough to face your fears, then you can change your whole life. Check out this article for tips on facing your fears.

50. “Can you imagine a life with no fear? What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats?” – Max Lucado

You might also like these Mel Robbins quotes that inspire meaningful personal growth.

More Max Lucado quotes and sayings

51. “Be patient. God is using today’s difficulties to strengthen you for tomorrow. He is equipping you. The God who makes things grow will help you bear fruit.” – Max Lucado

52. Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things we lack so we might see the blessings we possess.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: Instead of focusing on the things you do not have, be grateful for the things you do have. Practicing gratitude will make you less stressed and happier. How can you practice gratitude everyday? Well, mindfulness is a great place to start. You can also try keeping a gratitude journal.

53. “Your goal is not to know every detail of the future. Your goal is to hold the hand of the One who does and never, ever let go.” – Max Lucado

54. “Faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life and He will get us through it.” – Max Lucado

55. “Never underestimate the power that comes when a parent pleads with God on behalf of a child.” – Max Lucado

56. “Be quick to pray. Stop talking to yourself. Talk to Christ.” – Max Lucado

57. “When you’re full of yourself, God can’t fill you. But when you empty yourself, God has a useful vessel.” – Max Lucado

58. “God sees us with the eyes of a Father. He sees our defects, errors and blemishes. But He also sees our value.” – Max Lucado

59. “God does uncommon things through common people in common places.” – Max Lucado

60. “You’re special-not because of what you have. You’re special because of who you are.” – Max Lucado

Everyday Application: The good news in this statement is that we are all special just by being ourselves. Each of us is unique, with a unique set of skills and purpose. If we spent our time discovering who we truly are and chasing that purpose we would be much happier.

What did you learn from these Max Lucado quotes?

If you enjoyed any of these Max Lucado quotes, you may benefit from reading his entire books.

He shares that he tries to write books for people that don’t like reading books.

That means even if you don’t typically enjoy reading, you may find yourself quickly making your way through his books.

If you are interested in learning more about God and the impact that being a Christian can have on your life, these books can help get you pointed in the right direction.

If one of the quotes really speaks to you, you could start with the book that it came from and work from there.