Quotes from John Piper

God, in glorifying the saints in heaven with eternal felicity, aims to satisfy his infinite grace or benevolence, by the bestowment of a good infinitely valuable, because eternal: and yet there never will come the moment, when it can be said, that now this infinitely valuable good has been actually bestowed.

And, Father, most of all, you taught Me there's a Pow'r in love that naught Can thwart, and that it moves where truth And courage speak, and neither youth Nor age can hinder its success, But only fear and quietness.

self-interest is not the same as selfishness.

Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: "Look, Lord. See my shells." That is a tragedy.

The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks."5

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:8).

Cuando creemos que el Señor está más lejos de nosotros o nos ha vuelto la espalda, la verdad es que, mientras nos aferramos a Él, el Señor pone el fundamento para mayor felicidad en nuestra vida. No juzgues con débil sentido al Señor, Más bien confía en Él por su gracia; Detrás de una providencia agobiante Él esconde su rostro sonriente.

If we could live a thousand years, and experience a thousand relationships in the thousand times and places and cultures, perhaps we wouldn't need books in order to (eventually) become wise. But our lives are short, and God has been merciful to give us many places, many times, many cultures, and many experiences distilled into books. Find the ones that strengthen your faith and make you want to live all-out for God.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him

One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.

If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.

If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.

Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel.

It is better to lose your life than to waste it.

Grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't.

Fight for us, O God, that we not drift numb and blind and foolish into vain and empty excitements. Life is too short, too precious, too painful to waste on worldly bubbles that burst. Heaven is too great, hell is too horrible, eternity is too long that we should putter around on the porch of eternity.

My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God's word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes - many times - my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens - and it happens every day in some measure - I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.

The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.

All heroes are shadows of Christ

It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself.

Books don't change people; paragraphs do, Sometimes even sentences.

The wisdom of God devised a way for the love of God to deliver sinners from the wrath of God while not compromising the righteousness of God.

Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?