Inspirational Quotes by Ray Ortlund Jr.
“She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.” But she is not using her strengths and abilities to compete with her husband. She is not driven by an identity crisis or treating her marriage as a matter of sexual politics. She is too mature for that. She is giving herself away to her husband, her family, and her community with wholehearted selflessness. A woman of this quality is rare: “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”
“Naturally, such men were mostly husbands or husbands-to-be. We men need to know that a wife does not often grow to this level of magnificence on her own. A great wife usually has a great husband. After all, what does the word husband mean? We have the related English word husbandry, that is, “cultivation.” And when the English word husband is used as a verb, it means “to cultivate.” So here is a husband’s privilege and responsibility: to cultivate and nurture his wife. A wise husband’s lifetime impact on his wife is that she is enabled to become the magnificent woman, the “excellent wife,” God made her to be.”
“How does a husband do that? Not by browbeating his wife—God doesn’t treat us that way—but by encouraging her:”
“And in this world, Cain’s purpose succeeds. The rest of the Bible tells the story of the offspring of the Serpent dominating human affairs, as insecure fugitives gather together, convinced that this world they control is all that matters. They”
“Marriage is not a human invention; it is a divine revelation. Its design never was our own made-up arrangement of infinite malleability. It was given to us, at the beginning of all things, as a brightly shining fixity of eternal significance. We might not always live up to its true grandeur. None of us does so perfectly. But we have no right to redefine it, and we have every reason to revere it.”
“The Bible has its eye primarily on the ultimate marriage between the Son of God and his redeemed bride. That eternal romance is the biblical view of marriage, offering both instruction and hope for our own marriages today.”
“Reformation is the recovery of biblical truth in its redemptive claim on the whole of life. Revival is the renewal of human flourishing by the Holy Spirit according to the gospel. Marriage is one of the primary flashpoints of controversy where we most need both reformation and revival in our times.”
“if we strive to re-create reality more to our liking, we will trend not toward freedom and hope but toward disgusting and impious degradations, and there is no depth to which we will not fall even further. But”
“But if we humbly bend to the sorrows and buffetings of this life, trusting God, we will be surprised to discover beauty where God has hidden it—not in our fantasies but in his realities. God’s”
“The first claim of the Bible, then, setting the stage for marriage, is that manhood and womanhood are not our own cultural constructs. Human concepts are too small and artificial a context for the glory of our sexuality. Manhood and womanhood find their true meaning in the context of nothing less than the heavens and the earth, the cosmos, the universe, the entire creation. That is the first claim of the biblical love story.”
“Headship did not come down to us historically as an artifact of oppressive patriarchy; it began in heaven and came down into this world creationally as a pathway to human flourishing.”
“The only arrangement for sex and marriage that has any chance of working today is that which moves toward restoring our Edenic origins. If we modern Western egalitarians can hold our emotional horses long enough to imagine how a woman might be dignified by helping a worthy man who loves her sacrificially, as both the man and the woman humbly pursue the glory of God together, the profile of man and woman that blessed us in Eden will start looking more plausible as an approach to human happiness today. On”
“As Matthew Henry commented centuries ago, the woman was “not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”
“So Genesis 1 and 2 honor marriage as nothing less than the crowning glory of the creation of the universe. For us modern people who may see marriage as a product of human preference driving social evolution, that is a stunning claim. Moreover,”
“The biblical definition of marriage [is] established in Genesis 2:24—one mortal life fully shared between one man and one woman”
“Isn't it interesting how in Christmas cards and on public displays we often see the words, "Peace on earth, good will toward men"? But how seldom do we see the prior words, "Glory to God in the highest"! But there is no peace, there is no good will, unless there is glory to God in the highest first. We forget to put God's glory first. Fortunately, he does not. God will be glorified”
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In addition to a number of essays and articles, he has published several books. Ray also participated in The New Living Translation and the English Standard Version of the Bible. He contributed the introduction and study notes to the book of Isaiah in The ESV Study Bible.
Ray is the President of Renewal Ministries, a regional director in the Acts29 Network and serves on the council of The Gospel Coalition.
Ray and his wife Jani have been married for forty-one happy years, and they have four delightful children. Ray says, "I have the most wonderful wife, I love my kids and grandkids, and I love Immanuel Church. My dream is that God would use us for true revival in our city."