The collection / 166 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01Undated

When this world totally fails, the ground for joy remains.

John Piper / quote

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02Undated

In other words, when all the supports of human life and earthly happiness are taken away, God will be our delight, our joy. This experience is humanly impossible. No ordinary person can speak in truth like this. If God alone is enough to support joy when all else is lost, it is a miracle of grace.

John Piper / quote

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03Undated

Indeed the devil thinks more true thoughts about God in one day than a saint does in a lifetime, and God is not honored by it. The problem with the devil is not his theology, but his desires. Our chief end is to glorify God, the great Object. We do so most fully when we treasure him, desire him, delight in him so supremely that we let goods and kindred go and display his love to the poor and the lost.

John Piper / quote

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04Undated

There would be no obstacles to overcome. We won’t fight for joy in heaven. But we are not there yet.

John Piper / quote

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05Undated

If we were perfect—if there were no remaining corruption in our hearts—there would be no fight. There would be no obstacles to overcome. We won’t fight for joy in heaven. But we are not there yet.

John Piper / quote

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06Undated

This point is often missed by evangelical feminists. They conclude that a difference in function necessarily involves a difference in essence; i.e., if men are in authority over women, then women must be inferior. The relationship between Christ and the Father shows us that this reasoning is flawed. One can possess a different function and still be equal in essence and worth. Women are equal to men in essence and in being; there is no ontological distinction, and yet they have a different function or role in church and home. Such differences do not logically imply inequality or inferiority, just as Christ’s subjection to the Father does not imply His inferiority.

John Piper / quote

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07Undated

The Word frees us from smallness of mind (1 Kings 4:29) and from threatening confinements (Psalm 18:19).

John Piper / quote

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08Undated

Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful.

John Piper / quote

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09Undated

In other words, all the highest aims of language are decisively the work of God. They are decisively supernatural. And no amount of poetic effort or expertise in the use of words can bring about the great aims of life if God withholds his saving power.

John Piper / quote

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10Undated

...we should all fortify ourselves against the dark hours of depression by cultivating a deep distrust of the certainties of despair. Despair is relentless in the certainties of its pessimism. But we have seen again and again, from our own experience and others', that absolute statements of hopelessness that we make in the dark are notoriously unreliable. Our dark certainties are not sureties.

John Piper / quote

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11Undated

Most of your unhappiness in life comes from the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself.

John Piper / quote

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12Undated

DOING is often God's remedy for despair.

John Piper / quote

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13Undated

Absolute statements of our unbelief that we make in the darkness are notoriously unreliable.

John Piper / quote

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14Undated

When something drops into your life that seems to threaten your future, remember this: the first shockwaves of the bomb are not sin. The real danger is yielding to them. Giving in. Putting up no spiritual fight. And the root of that surrender is unbelief - a failure to fight for faith in future grace. A failure to cherish all that God promises to be for us in Jesus.

John Piper / quote

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15Undated

I recall hearing one of my professors in seminary say that one of the best tests of a person's theology was the effect it has on one's prayers.

John Piper / quote

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16Undated

Therefore we should pray for each other the way Jesus prays for us in John 17:17-- "Sanctify them in the truth; thy Word is truth.

John Piper / quote

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17Undated

God aims to exalt himself by working for those who wait for him. Prayer is the essential activity of waiting for God: acknowledging our helplessness and his power, calling upon him for help, seeking his counsel.

John Piper / quote

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18Undated

God is not looking for people to work for him, so much as he is looking for people ho will let him work for them. The gospel is not a Help Wanted ad. Neither is the call to to Christian service. On the contrary, the gospel commands us to give up and hang out a Help Wanted sign (this is the basic meaning of prayer). Then the gospel promises that God will work for us if we do. He will not surrender the glory of being the Giver.

John Piper / quote

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19Undated

I should interweave my theology with prayer. I should frequently interrupt my talking about God by talking to God. Not far behind the theological sentence, "God is generous," should come the prayerful sentence, "Thank you, God." On the heels of, "God is glorious," should come, "I adore your glory." What I have come to see is that this is the way it must be if we are feeling God's reality in our hearts as well as describing it with our heads.

John Piper / quote

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20Undated

By nature, we get more pleasure from God's gifts then from Himself.

John Piper / quote

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21Undated

O, how easy it is to do religious things if other people are watching! Preaching, praying, attending church, reading the bible, acts of kindness and charity-they all take on a certain pleasantness of the ego if we know that others will find out about them and think well of us. It is a deadly addiction for esteem that we have.

John Piper / quote

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22Undated

The most precious gifts you can think of are not ends in themselves. They all lead to God. Ultimately, that is what all His gifts are for.

John Piper / quote

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23Undated

Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy

John Piper / quote

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24Undated

What is love for, if not to intensify our affections—both in life and death? But, O, do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructiveto be bitter.

John Piper / quote

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