Study Guides by
John Ortberg
2 discussion guides available
The Life You've Always Wanted
John Ortberg's The Life You've Always Wanted is a warm, honest, and deeply practical guide to spiritual transformation through the classic Christian disciplines. But Ortberg is careful from the very first pages to reframe what spiritual disciplines are actually for: they are not a performance track for the spiritually elite, nor a checklist that earns God's approval. They are, as Ortberg puts it, a way of "training" rather than merely "trying" — the difference between a person who strains to run a marathon on willpower alone and one who has patiently built the capacity to run it with joy. The book's central argument is that the life we most deeply long for — a life of love, peace, meaning, and genuine Christlikeness — is not achieved by trying harder but by arranging our lives around the practices that open us to God's transforming grace. The compass of the whole journey is Jesus himself: what he was like, how he lived, and who we become as we are drawn closer to him.
View Discussion GuideIf You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat
John Ortberg's If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat is built around one of the most vivid scenes in the Gospels: Peter stepping out of a storm-tossed boat to walk toward Jesus on the water (Matthew 14:22–33). Ortberg uses this story as a lens for exploring the life of faith — specifically the kind of faith that requires risk, vulnerability, and a willingness to leave behind what feels safe. The book's central argument is simple but bracing: you will never experience the full adventure God has for you as long as you stay in the boat. The "boat" represents whatever zone of comfort, control, or familiarity keeps you from responding to Jesus' invitation to "Come." Growth in character, intimacy with God, and alignment with his purposes are all found outside the boat — and nowhere else.
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