“When Job was prospering, he prayed. When he was suffering, he still prayed.”

The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me.

There is a joy available that the deepest grief cannot put out. No circumstance or person can take away the joy God gives.

The sin that is most destructive in your life right now is the one you are most defensive about.

Christians need the gospel as much as non-Christians do.

We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that.

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.