Leaving the nest can be scary and, well, confusing. With graduations right around the corner, students are in need of hope-filled advice for the years to come.
To meet that need, we’ve compiled some of our books’ most encouraging and truth-filled Christian quotes for (soon-to-be) graduates.
“If you are following Christ then, by God’s grace, you’ve already made the most important decision of your life. Compared to that one, the others are just details.”
“So when you’re surrounded by a set of ‘maybes’ (maybe I should do this, maybe I should move there, maybe I should go out with him), look ahead to what is sure—and so, so exciting. In this sense, life can’t go ‘wrong’. All the decisions, indecisions and curveballs you experience can never make it go wrong.”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel alive—it really is ‘OK to yearn for more’. But you’ll always be disappointed if you don’t look in the right place for that feeling; you can only be made alive ‘with Christ’.”
“Whatever else you do, do the only thing that can make you feel truly alive—do life with Christ.”
“Life in Christ frees us to take risks. The Christian answer to the question ‘What if I do this thing and then it doesn’t work out or I don’t like it?” is, ‘Well, if you do, and then it doesn’t or you don’t, you’ll still be alive with Christ'.”
“Life may not always go the way you want. Decisions may not always work out the way you hoped. And that’s OK. Because you know the destination, and you know the driver. It’s Christ, and it’s Christ. And that’s worth getting excited about.”
“Whatever else you do, do the only thing that can make you feel truly alive—do life with Christ.”
"God is God, God is in control, and God’s kingdom has no rivals."
"God is in charge of the whole universe and you can trust him."
"We are not called to be pragmatic but faithful: to say, God has said this, and so I will do it."
“While it’s true (as we’ll see) that you really are much smaller and more limited than it is comfortable to admit out loud, you are, yet, most wondrously here. God has placed you where you are, and when you are, for his glory, right now.”
“Jesus wants you to give yourself entirely to God’s gift of today. For what is your former future, now known as your past, but the sum of your todays?
Today is when you will meet satisfying joys and sanctifying sorrows.
Today is filled with moments, large and small, that are loaded with kairos.
Today is what God graces us for, not our imaginary tomorrows.
Today is “the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
Today is when God wants us to live, at rest in the promise that he himself will inhabit your tomorrows.”
“In Christ, the reason you need never worry about the future is because your future will never be absent of him.”
“Because the God who fills all places is right here in your present place.
Here, among all the beautiful ordinariness of where you presently are.
Here, among these people, in this place.
Here, where your feet are.
That is where God wants you to fully be.”
“God delights to share his power with those who are bold enough to bother him.”
“While God loves to fill our lives with tangible expressions of his goodness, he wants us to find those things primarily in him.”
“Sometimes, God is more interested in producing his strength in you than taking your suffering from you.”
“If it matters to you, it matters to God, and so you can pray about it.”
“Just as we eat today because it keeps us alive, even while we simultaneously know we cannot change the appointed date of our death, so we pray because it is the means by which God does his work on earth.”
“It’s possible we’re more concerned with God’s will than with God himself.”
“Pray to a Father who you know loves you, is ready to receive you, and already knows what you need.”
“If it matters to you, it matters to God, and so you can pray about it.”
“Whatever you do, wherever you go, I have a big dream I want you to know. I pray you love Jesus with all of your heart. Whatever you do, that’s the right place to start.”
“I’ve something important to tell you today
It’s true and it’s hopeful and helps guide your way
God’s grace is enough
It’s so big and so free
His grace is enough
Both for you and for me.”
“We are not called to be like the world, and the world does not need us to be like the world. We have something better to say because we have someone better to follow.”
“The call is not to be comfortable but to be Christ-like—to discover the surprising means of experiencing real blessing, and in doing so to point others the way to it too.”
“Jesus is not demanding 100% success, and there will of course be disappointments and falterings and failings along the way. We will remain a long way off what we are called to be, but we will also be an increasing distance from what we once were.”
"The expectations we put on ourselves are often born out of what we think is best, not what God has said is best."
"When we follow our feelings we will be perpetually abandoning things God wants us to commit to because we hope for and expect the wrong things in the wrong timing from the wrong objects."
"Having eternity in our hearts and looking ahead to the happiness of heaven does not remove the meaning or joy from this life."
"God cares about work, craft, and creativity because it is good and in it we should find happiness."
“There is more grace in Jesus than there is sin in you.”
"We know we can turn good things into objects of worship, so we are skeptical of enjoying the good things. But this is the wrong response. It’s true that God is not honored by us idolizing his gifts—but nor is he honored by our ignoring them."
"God created innumerable good gifts and blessings for us, but we fail to enjoy them as we ought because we have placed far too much or far too little value on them."
"Pursuing holiness is the pursuit of happiness, in this life and the next. Nobody should be happier than a follower of Jesus."
“True happiness doesn’t come from your picture being liked but from your soul being loved.”
“There is more grace in Jesus than there is sin in you.”
“Our restless striving can cease if we hold true to this: God has made us in his image, to share his glory.”
“Aligning your dreams with God’s story means that you can “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) without having to worry about how well your achievements stack up on the scales of human measurement. You can joyfully and gratefully take your place in God’s bigger story and stop living under the constant pressure of trying to be the author of your own.”
“Big dreams can never bring you the lasting value, significance, and happiness you long for. And they don’t need to. You already have value as God’s creation, loved and honoured and sought-after. You already have significance as a character in his story.”
“The size your dreams reach will never be as important as what they are built on, and what they are pointed at.”
“You are here for a purpose. You were carefully crafted with a perfect plan in mind. You are a character in the greatest story ever told, and your life, and your actions, and your decisions—even today—can send shockwaves into eternity.”
"If, after refusing to be swayed on ethical matters, you are scorned, disciplined, demoted or even let go from your job, it must be in spite of the way you live, not because of it."
"Are we proclaiming the gospel message, and practising the gospel ethic it demands, among ourselves first?"
"A big view of God means we do not fear other people, but we do not despise them either."
You can shop these and other encouraging books for graduates at our website.
Avery is our Marketing Engagement Specialist. She manages our global social media channels and works alongside authors to help share about their books. You can often find her sharing stories in our bookstore at conferences.
