Inspirational Quotes by John Piper
“When we are driven by the gospel, we act in God’s power and work for the peace and prosperity of everyone (Jer. 29:4 – 7). And God’s call on us is to do this through all kinds of work, not just ministry work.”
“For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”*”
“There is a second reason for not scheduling yourself at full capacity: you operate better when you have space to think.”
“These two principles correspond to the two areas of effectiveness that we’ve encountered: personal leadership and personal management. “Know what’s most important” is the arena of personal leadership; “put it first and actually do it” is the arena of personal management.”
“We aren’t called to do all conceivable good, which would be impossible for us, but rather to maximize the opportunities that we have.”
“Four Reasons the Doctrine of Vocation Is Essential to Missions 1. It shows how everyone can be involved in more ways than just giving and sending. 2. It shows that the gospel has social implications, not just personal implications. 3. It shows us how to use our faith in a tactful way in the public arena. 4. It is in our vocations that we take our faith into the world and the gospel spreads most fully.”
“God is the ultimate measure and judge of our productivity. Things that do not pass muster at the final judgment are, by definition, not productive in an ultimate sense. On the other hand, passing the final judgment is the ultimate meaning of a productive life.5 Hence, in order to know what is truly productive, we need to look to God first, not ourselves or even our own desires.”
“Researchers have found that whenever most systems —such as airports, freeways, and other such things —exceed about 90 percent capacity, efficiency drops massively. Not just slightly, but massively. This is called the “ringing effect.” The reason is that as a system nears its capacity, the effect of relatively small disturbances is magnified exponentially.”
“we feel unfulfilled when there is a gap between what is most important to us (the realm of personal leadership) and what we are actually doing with our time (the realm of personal management). You are satisfied with your day when there is a match between what you value and how you spent your time.”
“True Christian character is not chiefly self-deprecating, but self-forgetful.”
“No man has a right to be idle. . . . [W]here is it in such a world as this that health, and leisure, and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct, some wrong to redress, some want to supply, some misery to alleviate? — William Wilberforce”
“God doesn’t whisper in our ears what to do next — that would short-circuit the growth of wisdom and path to maturity. Instead, God works through our understanding to enable us to determine the best course of action. He has given us a clear body of ethical teaching in the Scriptures and then, within that framework, given us room to make our own decisions using our renewed thinking. Discernment based on love is the way to know what’s best.”
“In other words, ongoing peace of mind comes through faith in Christ expressed in day-to-day life. This is the kind of peace that can endure even when everything is going haywire and we are simply unable to keep up with things. Why? Because it is not based on us. Just as we do good works from justification rather than for justification, we are also to do good works from peace rather than for peace. With gospel-centered productivity, peace comes first, not second.”
“Excellence in our work is actually a form of generosity and love, and poor quality is a form of stinginess and selfishness.”
“Don’t first ask, “What appointments and tasks are vying for my attention and how do I get them all done?” Rather, you need to ask whether you should be doing those things at all and, before that, know what’s most important in your life — the “first things.” Then you do those things — either right away, if you can, or by slotting them into your week if you can’t.”
“Efficiency doesn’t matter if you are doing the wrong things in the first place.”
“This is the fundamental principle when it comes to day-to-day execution: Do what’s important first, not last.”
“The only way to be productive is to realize we don't HAVE TO be productive. Our goal is to PLEASE God, not APPEASE God.”
“This means that the Scriptures are at the foundation of our productivity because the Scriptures are one of the chief ways God brings about this transformation and builds our character. In Psalm 1, for example, the reason this person flourishes in his character and prospers in all he does (v. 3) is because “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (v. 2).3 Related to this, prayer is also foundational to our productivity because in prayer we call on God for help and strength (notice also how Jesus connects prayer, the Scriptures, and productivity in John 14:7 – 8).”
“at your job, if you haven’t mastered the skills of your job or aren’t seeking to do so, you aren’t serving your employer and coworkers as well as you should. You might even be making the work of others harder. Mediocre work is not Christian! We are to love our neighbor as ourselves”
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John Piper (1946 - Present)
is a Calvinistic Baptist Christian preacher and author currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His books include ECPA Christian Book Award winners Spectacular Sins, What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God's Passion for His Glory, and bestsellers Don't Waste Your Life and The Passion of Jesus Christ. The evangelical organization Desiring God is named for his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986).In 1980, after what he described as an "irresistible call of the Lord to preach", Piper became Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he has been ministering ever since. Piper hit the evangelical scene after the publication of his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986) and has continued to publish dozens of other books further articulating this theological perspective. In 1994, he founded Desiring God Ministries, which provides all of Piper's sermons and articles from the past three decades, and most of his books online free of charge, as well as offering for sale books, CDs, and DVDs and regularly hosting conferences.
John Stephen Piper is a Reformed and Baptist theologian, preacher, and author, currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of numerous books.
Piper's motto in ministry, preaching, and teaching is: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." He calls those who live out this motto Christian Hedonists. Piper places a heavy emphasis on the objective and absolute nature of truth and is confident in the Christian's ability to grasp that truth through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.