Quotes from Paul David Tripp

An instrument s a tool that is actively used to change something, and God has called all of his people to be instruments of change in his redemptive hands

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you declare that your life does not belong to you, but has been created for the purpose of Another.

If your hope disappoints you, it is the wrong kind of hope. You see, hope in God never disappoints, precisely because it is hope *in God.* This means that hope placed in any other thing will always end up disappointing.

Your theology won't always work toward your obedience, because your use of theology is dictated by the condition of your heart. If your heart is not submitting to the plan of God, you will actually use your theology to justify things that should not be justified.

I no longer need to carry the burden of the past on my shoulders, so I am free to fully give myself to what God has called me to in the here and now.

Belief in eternity can clarify your values and renew your hope.

You are most humble and gentle when you think that the person you are ministering to is more like you than unlike you. When you have inserted yourself into another category that tends to make you think you have arrived, it is very easy to be judgmental and impatient.

We weren't created to find our satisfaction in the little, earthbound kingdom treasures of the here and now. We were created to seek a better treasure, and in so doing to be eternally grateful and satisfied.

If awesome things in creation become your god, the God who created those things will not own your awe. Horizontal awe is meant to do one thing: stimulate vertical

he's not first working on your happiness; he's committed to your holiness.

Becaise I love God, I want to handle his truth with accuracy, clarity, and specificity. I want to build bridges of understanding from the wisdom of the Word to the details of people's lives. And because I love people, I will not be satisfied with lobbing grenades of general truth at them. Rather, through good questions, committed listening, and careful interpretation, I will enter their world with the understanding necessary to bring Christ's help to where it is really needed.

If I am going to see myself clearly, I need you to hold the mirror of God's Word in front of me.

True restoration takes patience, subtlety, skill, and grace.

Whatever sits on the other side of your "if-only" is where you are looking for life, peace, joy, hope, and lasting contentment of heart.

No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. It's a fact that you and I are in an endless conversation with ourselves.

I came to see that I was wired for awe, that awe of something sits at the bottom of everything I say and do. But I wasn't just wired for awe. I was wired for awe of God. No other awe satisfies the soul. No other awe can give my heart the peace, rest, and security that it seeks. I came to see that I needed to trace awe of God down to the most mundane of human decisions and activities.

Change is not found in defending our righteousness, but in admitting our weakness and crying for help.

Every awesome thing in creation is designed to point you to the One who alone is worthy of capturing and controlling the awe of your searching and hungry heart.

Could it be that desire for a good thing has become a bad thing because that desire has become a ruling thing?

When your ears hear and your eyes see the sin, weakness, or failure of your husband or wife, it is never an accident; it is always grace. God loves your spouse, and he is committed to transforming him or her by his grace, and he has chosen you to be one of his regular tools of change.

Yes, your life is messy and hard, but that's not a failure of the plan; it is the plan. It's God working to complete what he's begun in you.

The minute you hear a sermon on materialism, you're glad somebody else is there to hear it.

Running from the presence of God has the futility of "trying to shovel smoke with a rake".

In a fallen world there is a powerful pressure to constrict your life to the shape and size of your life. There is a compelling tendency to forget who you are and what you were made for. There is a tendency to be shortsighted, myopic, and easily distracted. There is a tendency to settle for less when you have been created for more. There is something expansive, glorious, and eternal that is meant to give direction to everything you do.