Paul David Tripp Quotes

Every time you make creative, interactive, and harmonious jazz with your Redeemer, whether in your home, friendships, community, church, or at work, while staying inside of his parameters, you are expanding what you touch to the size of God's kingdom. ~ Paul David Tripp

God justifies the ungodly. This means there really is hope for people like us. ~ Paul David Tripp

Love is daily admitting to yourself, your spouse, and God that you are not able to love this way without God's protecting, providing, forgiving, rescuing, and delivering grace. ~ Paul David Tripp

Our need is so desperate an idea, a thing, a law can't help us. It took one thing, the gift of gifts, God in the flesh, to rescue us. ~ Paul David Tripp

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. ~ Paul David Tripp

The Bible says that our core problem, the fundamental reason we do what we do, is sin. ~ Paul David Tripp

No one celebrates the presence and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ more than the person who has embraced his desperate and daily need of it. ~ Paul David Tripp

On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. PSALM 145:5 ~ Paul David Tripp

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. ~ Paul David Tripp

The Bible isn't a storybook with many heroes. No, there's only one hero in Scripture: the Son, the Lamb, the Savior, the King, the Redeemer - Jesus. ~ Paul David Tripp

This is the good news of the gospel. Peace came. Peace lived. Peace died. Peace rose again. Peace reigns on your behalf. Peace indwells you by the Spirit. Peace graces you with everything you need. Peace convicts, forgives, and delivers you. Peace will finish his work in you. Peace will welcome you into glory, where Peace will live with you in peace and righteousness forever. Peace isn't a faded dream. No, Peace is real. Peace is a person, and his name is Jesus. ~ Paul David Tripp

You're going to hunger for some success in life. May you hunger for the complete success of the gospel in your heart. ~ Paul David Tripp

Only when awe of God rules your heart will you be able to keep the pleasures of the material world in their proper place. ~ Paul David Tripp

We forget that God's primary goal ia not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy, but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we will be holy. ~ Paul David Tripp

God is the ultimate musician. His music transforms your life. The notes of redemption rearrange your heart and restore your life. His songs of forgiveness, grace, reconciliation, truth, hope, sovereignty, and love give you back your humanity and restore your identity. ~ Paul David Tripp

Sin doesn't always look sinful to us; sometimes it looks beautiful. That's why we need grace to see sin for what it really is - dark, dangerous, enslaving and destructive. ~ Paul David Tripp

You find joy in your inclusion in his work of redemption. You find hope in the glorious future that is to come. You are amazed by the fact that because Immanuel has invaded your life by his grace, you are never, ever alone. You find peace in the fact that grace means you are never left to the small resources of your own wisdom, righteousness, and strength. You meditate on God's glory and goodness, then celebrate. You rejoice in the fact that you no longer have to look for life in the people, situations, and locations around you, but you've been given life - life that is eternal. ~ Paul David Tripp

If you are in Christ, you've been chosen to transcend the borders of your own glory, to reach out toward a greater glory, the glory of God. ~ Paul David Tripp

God is using the difficulties of the here and now to transform you, that is, to rescue you from you. And because he loves you, he will willingly interrupt or compromise your momentary happiness in order to accomplish one more step in the process of rescue and transformation, which he is unshakably committed to. ~ Paul David Tripp

Human beings by their very nature are worshipers. Worship is not something we do; it defines who we are. You cannot divide human beings into those who worship and those who don't. Everybody worships; it's just a matter of what, or whom, we serve. ~ Paul David Tripp

If your faith is based on your ability to fully understand your past, present, and future, then your moments of confusion will become moments of weakening faith. ~ Paul David Tripp

See yourself and weep. See your God and rejoice. ~ Paul David Tripp

On your very worst, most rebellious, and most faithless day, you can run into the holy presence of your heavenly Father and he will not turn you away. ~ Paul David Tripp

For students who have not been required to confess that it is easier to learn theology then live it, it is tempting to think maturity is more a matter of knowing in a matter of living ~ Paul David Tripp

I am my biggest marital problem ~ Paul David Tripp

The cross guarantees that even in your darkest moment God will never turn in disgust and walk away. There is no rebellion, no weakness, no foolishness, no evil of heart that the cross can't defeat and grace can't transform. ~ Paul David Tripp

The person next to you doesn't need the gospel more than you do; he just needs it differently than you do. All people sin and fall short. ~ Paul David Tripp

When Christ is my hope, he becomes the one thing in which I have confidence. I act on his wisdom and bank on his grace. I trust his promises and I rely on his presence. And I pursue all the good things that he has promised me simply because I trust him. So, I am not manipulating, controlling, or threatening my way through life to get what I want, because I have found what I want in Christ. He is my hope. ~ Paul David Tripp

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you recognize that the biggest problems you face in life exist inside of you, not outside of you. ~ Paul David Tripp

Do you require yourself to remember? In order to live as you can and should, you first must remember who you are and what you've been given. ~ Paul David Tripp

This stunning act of humble love resulted not from Jesus's forgetting who he was but from remembering who he was. This was the holy mission of the Son Savior. He had to be willing to enter the lowest human condition, to do the most debased thing, and to let go of his rights of position in order that we might be redeemed. It was a high and holy calling, and it was the only way. ~ Paul David Tripp

As we face our vulnerability and weakness, there are things you and I should pray for regularly. We should pray for purity of desire, wisdom to recognize the enemy's tricks, and strength to fight the battles we can't avoid. ~ Paul David Tripp

Every day you preach to yourself a gospel of your loneliness, inability, and lack of resources or you faithfully preach to yourself the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. ~ Paul David Tripp

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 ~ Paul David Tripp

God's design in our pain enables us to look back and say: He loves me enough to take me where I would have never wanted to go in order to produce in me what I never could have achieved on my own. ~ Paul David Tripp

So peace is found only in trust, trust of the One who is in careful control of all the things that tend to rob you of your peace. He knows, he understands, he is in control of what appears to be chaos, he is never surprised, he is never confused, he never worries or loses a night's sleep, he never walks off the job to take a rest, he never gets so busy with one thing that he neglects another, and he never plays favorites. You need to remind yourself again and again of his wise and loving control, not because that will immediately make your life make sense, but because it will give you rest and peace in those moments that all of us face at one time or another - when life doesn't seem to make any sense. ~ Paul David Tripp

Biblical literacy and theological expertise are not, therefore, the end of the Word but a God-ordained means to an end, and the end is a radically transformed life because the worship at the center of that life has been reclaimed. ~ Paul David Tripp

None of us is yet a grace graduate, but we're satisfied. We all give evidence that we still need to grow, but we're satisfied. And because we are satisfied, we are resistant to the grace that is our only hope. ~ Paul David Tripp

We, with all of our sin, weakness, and failures are welcome to do what should blow our minds. We are not only tolerated by God at a distance; no, we are welcomed into intimate personal communion with the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the creator, the sovereign, the Savior. We, as unholy as we are, are told to go with confidence into his holy presence. ~ Paul David Tripp

Self-righteousness means you don't see yourself or the other person with accuracy. It means you see his or her speck as a log and your log as a speck. So you are condemning of him or her and excusing of yourself. You treat the other person with judgment while you respond to yourself with patience. ~ Paul David Tripp

Human self-righteousness denies the need for the saving, enabling grace of Christ. Human righteousness embraces the cruelest of Satan's lies, that a person can be righteous by keeping the law. If that were true, there would have been no need for the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. ~ Paul David Tripp

In his mind, he held up all the artifacts he had collected over the years and wondered about their true value. ~ Paul David Tripp

Since God writes your story, he knows what you're facing and exactly what grace you'll need to live his way. ~ Paul David Tripp

Because of our forgetfulness, God has created the physical world to be mnemonic, to help us daily remember that we are not alone, that we are not at the center, that life is not primarily about us, and that there is a grander story than the little stories of our individual lives. Physical things are meant to remind us of the grandeur and glory of the One who created all those things, set them in motion, and keeps them together by the awesome power of his will. ~ Paul David Tripp

Could it be that desire for a good thing has become a bad thing because that desire has become a ruling thing? ~ Paul David Tripp

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

You can be courageous in admitting your sin precisely because God is richly abundant in his mercy. He comes to you in mercy not because you are good but because you are a sinner, and he knows that because of this condition, you are unable to help yourself. ~ Paul David Tripp

Personal ministry is not about always knowing what to say. It is not about fixing everything in sight that is broken. Personal ministry is about connecting people with Christ so that they are able to think as he would have them think, desire what he says is best, and do what he calls them to do even if their circumstances never get "fixed." It involves exposing hurt, lost, and confused people to God's glory, so that they give up their pursuit of their own glory and live for his. ~ Paul David Tripp

Be thankful his majesty is your protection, his glory is your motivation, his grace is your help, and his wisdom is your direction. He is infinitely smarter than you and me in our most brilliant moments ~ Paul David Tripp

There's not a day without sin rearing its ugly head and not a day in which God's abundant mercies are not new. ~ Paul David Tripp

May your kingdom so rule my heart that stepping over your boundaries would no longer be attractive to me. ~ Paul David Tripp

Now, the typical way to measure your potential is to compare the size of the problem to your natural gifts and your track record so far. No, it's not irrational to measure your potential this way, but for the believer in Christ Jesus, it simply isn't enough. By grace, God doesn't leave you on your own. He doesn't leave you with the tool box of your own strength, righteousness, and wisdom. No, he invades you with his presence, power, wisdom, and grace. Paul captures this reality with these life-altering words: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). ~ Paul David Tripp

Don't be discouraged at the spiritual war you're called to fight every day. The Lord almighty is with you and wars on your behalf. ~ Paul David Tripp

It was humbling to admit that I wasn't living the simple life because I was spiritually committed to it. I was living the simple life because I was poor. ~ Paul David Tripp

The best theology will not remove mystery from your life, so rest is found in trusting the One who rules, is all, and knows no mystery. ~ Paul David Tripp

How many believers really live a lifestyle that results from believing that God has graced them to be not just recipients of the work of his kingdom but instruments of the work of the kingdom as well? When you believe this, you live with a constant ministry mentality that results in an everyday ministry lifestyle. ~ Paul David Tripp

The Bible is the story of a love drama that looked as if it would end in tragedy - but then Jesus came. ~ Paul David Tripp

To live for yourself is to rob yourself of your own humanity. It is only in living for Christ that we actually begin to become what we were meant to be. ~ Paul David Tripp

The brokenness around you affects you in different ways at different times. .................... . At every point and every moment, your life is messier and more complicated than it really ought to be because everything is so much more difficult in such a terribly broken world.
But let us also see that this world of ours is more than a broken-down house. It is a broken-down house in the process of being restored. ~ Paul David Tripp

When I come to the Lord after I've blown it, I've only one argument to make. It's not the argument of the difficulty of the environment that I am in. It's not the argument of the difficult people that I'm near. It's not the argument of good intentions that were thwarted in some way.

I come to the Lord with only one appeal; his mercy. I've no other defense. I've no other standing. I've no other hope. I can't escape the reality of my biggest problem; me! So I appeal to the one thing in my life that's sure and will never fail. I appeal to the one thing that guaranteed not only my acceptance with God, but the hope of new beginnings and fresh starts. I appeal on the basis of the greatest gift I ever have or ever will be given.

I leave the courtroom of my own defense, I come out of hiding and I admit who I am. But I'm not afraid, because I've been personally and eternally blessed. Because of what Jesus has done, God looks on me with mercy. It's my only appeal, it's the source of my hope, it's my life. Mercy, mercy me! ~ Paul David Tripp

In the family, life is brought not only to our doorstep, but into our kitchens, bedrooms, and dens. In the family, life is happening all around us, and it begs to be questioned, evaluated, interpreted, and discussed. There is no more consistent, pregnant, dynamic forum for instruction about life than the family, because that is exactly what God designed the family to be, a learning community. ~ Paul David Tripp

Can you tell the story of redemption in one sentence? Sin has driven us out of the garden, but grace drives us right into the Father's arms. ~ Paul David Tripp

Being truly biblical means that my counsel reflects what the entire Bible is about. The Bible is a narrative, a story of redemption, and its chief character is Jesus Christ. He is the main theme of the narrative, and he is revealed in every passage in the book. This story reveals how God harnessed nature and controlled history to send his Son to rescue rebellious, foolish, and self-focused men and women. He freed them from bondage to themselves, enabled them to live for his glory, and gifted them with an eternity in his presence, far from the harsh realities of the Fall. ~ Paul David Tripp

Real comfort is found when I understand that I am held in the hollow of the hand of the One who created and rules all things. The most valuable thing in my life is God's love, a love that no one can take away. When my identity is rooted in him, the storms of trouble will not blow me away.

This is the comfort we offer people. We don't comfort them by saying things will work out. They may not. The people around them may change, but they may not. The Bible tells us again and again that everything around us is in the process of being taken away. God and his love are all that remain as cultures and kingdoms rise and fall. Comfort is found by sinking our roots into the unseen reality of God's ever-faithful love. ~ Paul David Tripp

Maturity is about how you live your life. It is possible to be theologically astute and be very immature. It is possible to be biblically literate and be in need of significant spiritual growth. ~ Paul David Tripp

Corporate worship is designed to remind you that in the center of all things is a glorious and gracious King, and this king is not you ~ Paul David Tripp

. . .most people who are angry with God are angry with him for being God. They're not angry because he has failed to deliver what he promised, They're angry because he has failed to deliver what they have craved, expected or demanded. ~ Paul David Tripp

Next time you face the unexpected, a moment of difficulty you really don't want to go through, remember that such a moment doesn't picture a God who has forgotten you, but one who is near to you and doing in you a very good thing. He is rescuing you from thinking that you can live the life you were meant to live while relying on the inadequate resources of your wisdom, experience, righteousness, and strength; and he is transforming you into a person who lives a life shaped by radical God-centered faith. ~ Paul David Tripp

Here is one of the most beautiful fruits of grace - a heart that is content, more given to worship than demand and more given to the joy of gratitude than the anxiety of want. ~ Paul David Tripp

We're not only held captive by our sin, but also by the delusion of our righteousness. Resting in God's grace isn't just about confessing your sin; it's about forsaking your righteousness as well. ~ Paul David Tripp

God has chosen to let you live in this fallen world because he plans to employ the difficulties of it to continue and complete his work in you. ~ Paul David Tripp

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. ~ Paul David Tripp

You cannot ask for forgiveness without acknowledging that there is something in life that is more important than the progress of your own kingdom. ~ Paul David Tripp

Biblical faith lives at the intersection of shocking honesty and glorious hope. ~ Paul David Tripp

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. ~ Paul David Tripp

Autonomous Christianity never works, because our spiritual life was designed by God to be a community project. ~ Paul David Tripp

Look at your trials and see grace. Behind those difficulties is an ever-present Redeemer who is completing his work. ~ Paul David Tripp

So the desire for good possessions is not wrong, but it must not rule your heart. ~ Paul David Tripp

We must not offer people a system of redemption, a set of insights and principles. We offer people a Redeemer. ~ Paul David Tripp

The character of a life isn't set in ten big moments. The character of a life is set in ten thousand little moments of everyday life. It's the themes of struggles that emerge from those little moments that reveal what's really going on in our hearts. ~ Paul David Tripp

We must begin by admitting that people and situations do not cause us to speak as we do. Our hearts control our words. People and situations simply provide the occasion for the heart to express itself. ~ Paul David Tripp

When you remember mercy, you are humble, thankful, and tender. ~ Paul David Tripp

The fatal flaw of human wisdom is that it promises that you can change your relationships without needing to change yourself.
Every painful thing we experience in relationships is meant to remind us of our need for God. And every good thing we experience is meant to be a metaphor of what we can only find in Him ... We settle for the satisfaction of human relationships when they were meant to point us to the perfect relational satisfaction found only with God. ~ Paul David Tripp

We are called by God to do theology, that is, to live our lives with a moment-by-moment consciousness of God. ~ Paul David Tripp

Here's the bottom line: you and I struggle with the faithfulness of God, not because he has been unfaithful, but because we have. ~ Paul David Tripp

You obey not to get God's attention, but because you have been the object of his attention since before the world began. ~ Paul David Tripp

Remember, it is not your weakness that will get in the way of God's working through you, but your delusions of strength. His strength is made perfect in our weakness! Point to His strength by being willing to admit your weakness. ~ Paul David Tripp

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. ~ Paul David Tripp

Listen to the present tense gospel in the words of Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ [a statement of historical redemptive fact]. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me [a statement of present redemptive reality]. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me [living in light of the gospel right here, right now]. ~ Paul David Tripp

Our purpose (in relationship) is to get what we want but God's purpose is to give us what we really need. We think things are going well only if we are getting along with others. But God says that it is also when we are not getting along with others that he is accomplishing his purpose.
God has designed our relationship to function as both a diagnosis and a cure. ~ Paul David Tripp

Discontent is good if it makes you long for home, but bad if it makes you doubt the One who prepares a place for you in his home. ~ Paul David Tripp

Real Hope stares us in the face, but we do not see him. Instead, we dig into the mound of human ideas to extract a tiny shard of insight. We tell ourselves that we have finally found the key, the thing that will make a difference. We act on the insight and embrace the delusion of lasting personal change. But before long, disappointment returns. The change was temporary and cosmetic, failing to penetrate the heart of the problem. So, we go back to the mound again, determined this time to dig in the right place. Eureka! We find another shard of insight, seemingly more profound than before. We take it home, study it, and put it into practice. But we always end up in the same place. The good news confronts us with the reality that heart-changing help will never be found in the mound. It will only be found in the Man, Christ Jesus. We must not offer people a system of redemption, a set of insights and principles. We offer people a Redeemer. In ~ Paul David Tripp

Forgiveness is a vertical commitment that is followed by a horizontal transaction. ~ Paul David Tripp

When Jesus touches me with his rescuing grace, he is freeing me from my bondage to me! ~ Paul David Tripp

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. ~ Paul David Tripp

It is so difficult for us to remember and be motivated by what is truly important. It is so tempting to be committed to our little kingdoms that the transcendent kingdom of God is of little functional influence. ~ Paul David Tripp

I understand why many people who call themselves Christians are not excited about grace. If you think your environment is your problem, you won't esteem grace, but once you admit that you're your biggest problem, you will celebrate the grace that rescues you from you. ~ Paul David Tripp

God created an awesome world. God intentionally loaded the world with amazing things to leave you astounded. The carefully air-conditioned termite mound in Africa, the tart crunchiness of an apple, the explosion of thunder, the beauty of an orchid, the interdependent systems of the human body, the inexhaustible pounding of the ocean waves, and thousands of other created sights, sounds, touches, and tastes - God designed all to be awesome. And he intended you to be daily amazed. ~ Paul David Tripp

Real peace is only ever found in the presence, power, and grace of the Savior, the King, the Lamb, the I am. That peace is yours even when the storms of life take you beyond your natural ability, wisdom, and strength. You can live with hope and courage in the middle of what once would have produced discouragement and fear because you know you are never alone. The I am inhabits all situations, relationships, and locations by his grace. He is in you. He is with you. He is for you. He is your hope. ~ Paul David Tripp

Belief in eternity can clarify your values and renew your hope. ~ Paul David Tripp