According to his website: “Dr. Paul David Tripp is a pastor, international event speaker, and a best-selling and award-winning author. With more than 30 books and video series on Christian living, Paul’s driving passion is to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.”1
As I was combing through his many quotations I was struck with many of them talking about the awe of God. And in one of his quotes, he makes a very profound statement. He says: “I was wired for awe.” This concept got me to thinking what does it mean to be wired for awe. In tomorrow’s devotion I plan to share some thoughts on this theme. For now, I pray the quotes below by Dr. Tripp will encourage your soul and fill you with the joy of the Lord.2
“We forget that God’s primary goal is 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.”
“The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.”
“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.”
“We must not offer people a system of redemption, a set of insights and principles. We offer people a Redeemer.”
“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.”
“Embedded in the larger story of redemption is a principle we must not miss: God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things in the lives of others.”
“Sin makes us moral quadriplegics.”
“Only when awe of God rules your heart will you be able to keep the pleasures of the material world in their proper place.”
“Don’t fear your weaknesses—God supplies all the strength you need. Be afraid of those moments when you think you’re independently strong.”
“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.”
“Even the most regular, seemingly unimportant tasks of my life must be shaped and directed by a heartfelt desire for the glory of God.”
“Today you will envy the blessings of another, or you will bask in the wonder of the amazing grace you have been given.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
2 All of these quotes by Dr. Tripp are from the website below: