“The gospel does not promise you better life circumstances; it promises you a better life.”

The great basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.

I am going to judge my circumstances by Jesus’ love, not Jesus’ love by my circumstances.

In religion, you obey because God is useful. In Christianity, you obey because God is beautiful.

All human problems are ultimately symptoms, and our separation from God is the cause.

Since they were saved by sheer grace, not by their perfect doctrine or strong moral character.

When we grasp that we are unworthy sinners saved by an infinitely costly grace, it destroys both our self-righteousn ess and our need to ridicule others.

Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.

We come to God saying, “Look at all I’ve done,” or maybe “Look at all I’ve suffered.” God, however, wants us to look to him – to just wash.

The purpose of Jesus’s coming is to put the whole world right, to renew and restore the creation, not to escape it.

Christ’s resurrection not only gives you hope for the future; it gives you hope to handle your scars right now.

Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.

How does Satan accuse us? By causing us to look at our sin rather than our Savior.

Think like a prophet, serve like a priest, and plan like a king.

We tend to see God as a means through which we get things to make us happy. For most of us, He has not become our happiness.

The basic purpose of prayer is not to bend God’s will to mine, but to mold my will into His.

It’s impossible to have met the real Jesus and be indifferent. You either bow down in wonder OR go away offended.

There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me.

Elicited by a particular set of circumstances on a particular day, and we do well to wait a while before concluding that what we see is the whole person.

While these tendencies were no doubt in train in the “old,” pre-1990s economy, they accelerated over the past decade as a number of technologies with their roots in the cumulative innovations of the past half-century began to yield dramatic economic returns.

In the way of circumstances and background to transcend I had everything an artist could possibly want. It was practically a blueprint.

There is one plain rule of life. Try thyself unweariedly till thou findest the highest thing thou art capable of doing, faculties and outward circumstances being both duly considered, and then do it.

Highly resilient people are flexible, adapt to new circumstances quickly, and thrive in constant change.

I am quite my own master, agreeably lodged, perfectly easy in my circumstances.

They have a knack for creating good luck out of circumstances that many others see as bad luck.