Awe

This book by Paul David Tripp was an invaluable gift from friends.  Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do, is a simple and yet profound book.

Tripp does a masterful job by unearthing things inside you that you weren’t even aware were there.  He makes it so obvious you wonder how you never saw it in the first place.

Favorite Quotes

  1. Look at your highest joys and deepest sorrows, and you will find where you reach for awe (19).
  2. You could argue that one of the fundamental purposes of the great redemptive store and the person and work of Jesus is to recapture our hearts for the awe of God and God alone (26).
  3. Theological instruction that does not arouse awe is broken (46).
  4. When you’re at the center, when you feel entitled, when your desires dominate your heart, and when it really is all about you, you will have much to complain about (56).
  5. …you can run from a situation, you can run from a relationship, and you can run from a location, but you cannot run from you (77).
  6. Awe of God will produce willing submission to his will, and a lack of awe of God will lead me to step over his boundaries (82).
  7. If I am at the center, I will define good as what is comfortable, predictable, pleasurable, natural, and easy (100).
  8. No matter who you are, no matter where you are, and not matter your gender or age, you either tell yourself that you have life or you are on a quest to find life, and you will tend to be in awe of whatever you think will give you life (110).
  9. To the degree that my capacity for awe is ruled or controlled by something or someone other than God, to that degree I need to be further reconciled to God.  That’s the war of sanctification (124).
  10. I am afraid that we often live as if there is no God and it’s all on us (137).
  11. 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 (150)?
  12. He has called you [parents] to be a tool that recaptures the awe of your children’s hearts, so that the awe of him would reign where awe of self once did (164).
  13. God is too wise and loving ever to call you to one area of responsibility that will necessitate you being irresponsible in another (180).

Book Description

Humans are hardwired for awe.

Our hearts are always captured by something—that’s how God made us. But sin threatens to distract us from the glory of our Creator. All too often, we stand in awe of everything but God.

Uncovering the lies we believe about all the earthly things that promise us peace, life, and contentment, Paul Tripp redirects our gaze to God’s awe-inducing glory—showing how such a vision has the potential to impact our every thought, word, and deed.