John Piper Quotes

There are many trials in life which do not seem to come from unwisdom or folly; they are silver arrows shot from the bow of God, and fixed inextricably in the quivering heart - they are meant to be borne - they were not meant, like snow or water, to melt as soon as they strike; but the moment an ill can be patiently borne it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain.

The good news of suffering is that it brings us to the end of ourselves - a purpose it has certainly served in my life. It brings us to the place of honesty, which is the place of desperation, which is the place of faith, which is the place of freedom.

God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

The God we serve does not seek out the perfect, but instead uses our imperfections and our shortcomings for his greater good. I am humbled by my own limitations. But where I am weak, He is strong.

Afflictions are but as a dark entry into our Father's house.

We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.

Humility is the gateway into the grace and the favor of God.

Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them.

The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my riches but my need.

Man offers himself to God. He stands before Him like the canvas before the painter or the marble before the sculptor. At the same time he asks for His grace, expresses his needs and those of his brothers in suffering. Such a type of prayer demands complete renovation. The modest, the ignorant, and the poor are more capable of this self-denial than the rich and the intellectual.

God allows us to dace difficulties so that our faith will be stretched and refined. The trials we face provide an excellent opportunity for us to declare our dependence on God and not on ourselves. The way we win the battle with discouragement is by humbling ourselves before God and telling Him that we need Him. There is only one way to do this, and it is through prayer.

One of the greatest evidences of God's love to those that love him is, to send them afflictions, with grace to bear them.

Accept the long night patiently, quietly, humbly, and resignedly as intended for your true good. It is not a punishment for sin committed but an instrument of annihilating egoism.

Good when He gives, supremely good; Nor less when He denies: Afflictions, from His sovereign hand, Are blessings in disguise.

We receive God's grace by humbly admitting that we need it.

However much we do to avoid them, we shall never lack crosses in this life if we are in the ranks of the Crucified.

I found it better for my soul to be humble before the mysteries o' God's dealings, and not be making a clatter about what I could never understand.

The saints should always remember that God sees not as man sees; that he does not willingly afflict his children, and that if he requires them to endure present privation and trial, it is that they may escape greater tribulations which would otherwise inevitably overtake them. If He deprives them of any present blessing, it is that he may bestow upon them greater and more glorious ones by-and by.

God gave me this illness to remind me that I'm not Number One; He is.

Lord, how you afflict your lovers! But everything is small in comparison to what you give them afterwards.

His own faith, however, was not lacking in virtues since it consisted in acknowledging obscurely that he would be granted much without ever deserving anything.

If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him.

God often hides His blessing in trouble or trial, which makes it all the sweeter when it comes our way.

God measures out affliction to our need.

Thank God when He lays a burden on thee, and thank Him when He takes it off.