Quotes About Grace

At the deepest level of what we do as parents, we should hear the heartbeat of a loving, grace-giving Father who freely adopts rebels and transforms them into loving sons and daughters.

Idolatry, like all sin, is devastating to the soul. It cuts us off from the comforts of grace, the peace of conscience, and the joy that is to be our strength.

the children who actually end up performing better are those who understand that their relationship with God doesn't depend on their performance for Jesus but on Jesus's performance for them. With the right mixture of fear and guilt, I can get my three children to obey in the short term. But my desire is not that they obey for five minutes or even for five days. My desire is that they obey for fifty years!

Any obedience that isn't motivated by his great love is nothing more than penance.

Because we don't know the state of our children's souls, and because they might simply want to please us by praying to be saved, we must continue to give them the Law and encourage them to ask God for faith to believe that He is as good as He says He is.

God is too great to be glorified only through the lives of His victorious children. He is glorified by our suffering and even by our sin. His sustaining strength is glorified when we walk through the furnace of affliction.

The Lord teaches us of His grace and the Gospel through difficult children. We learn what it's like to love like He loved. It is there, in our personal upper room, where we learn to wash the feet of those that are betraying us. It is there, kneeling before our rebellious children, that the real power of God is demonstrated.

The gospel is not good news to those who pride themselves on their hard work. It is infuriating news.

Like us, our children crave the blessed benediction: "You are good!" But the Bible says that because we are not good, those words no longer apply to us. We're not good.

Oh, how different this groom is! So many men look for a woman who is already beautiful—one who will enhance their resume and make other men think that they have value. Jesus did just the opposite. He went and found the most vile creature he could and set about beautifying her by taking her vileness upon himself and fully identifying with her, thereby remaking her into his image. Yes, eventually this does accrue to his glory, but it's not how most men look to advance themselves.

Love is the first cause of all the graces we desire; it "warms the heart, and sweetly and powerfully influences our affections to delight in, and to walk in love with such an exceedingly gracious and merciful God.

Even though our children cannot and will not obey God's law, we need to teach it to them again and again. And when they tell us that they can't love God or others in this way, we are not to argue with them. We are to agree with them and tell them of their need for a Savior.

yes, I am sinful and flawed, but I am also loved and welcomed. It doesn't really matter what other people say or do. God loves me, even in my brokenness, and that's all that matters.

We will never deal gently with our husband's failures if we haven't first drunk deeply of God's gentleness with us in Christ. We will never deal gently with him if we don't see ourselves as that adulterous bride God lovingly betrothed to Himself.

When we lose the centrality of the cross, Christianity morphs into a religion of self-improvement and becomes about us, about our accomplishments, and about getting our act together.

Live your life transparently so other women will see that Jesus loves the weak, the weary, the wounded, and the sinner, and perhaps they, too will be emboldened to stop faking it.

True repentance involves a hatred for sin and a turning from it and from all self-salvation projects … It's only as I hate my sin that I'll have the desire to fight it.

You won't "bear fruit for God" if you continually think about how you have failed to keep the law. Instead, your heart and mind have to be convinced of the love of your new husband, and you have to delight in him alone. It's only a responsive love for Jesus and all he has done for you personally that will cause godly fruit to be born in your life.

We need to remember how what Christ has already done transforms who we are right now -- not later, once we get it together but right now in all the messes we've made.

The world feeds us a steady diet of it's-okay-if-you-are-a-nice-person sprinkled with a bit of if-you-try-your-hardest and topped with a strong drink of you-meant-well.

We are completely and irrevocably justified; we have been entirely forgiven, reconciled, redeemed. We will have eternal life with him, and everything we go through now is in some way tied to these truths.

Our children's salvation is not dependent on the strength of our faith or the shrewdness of our answers.

We have to remember that in the life of our unregenerate children, the law is given for one reason only: to crush their self-confidence and drive them to Christ.

Knowing that salvation is God's work alone should also free us from fear. We no longer have to fear that everything is riding on what we say—that we might miss that "one" opportunity to speak into our children's lives and have their eternal salvation forfeited.