Here is one of the most beautiful fruits of grace—a heart that is content, more given to worship than demand and more given to the joy of gratitude than the anxiety of want.

because we are self-focused, we tend to be scorekeepers, constantly comparing our piles of stuff to the piles of others. It's a life of discontentment and envy. Envy is always selfish.

God is with you in your moments of darkness because he will never leave you. But your darkness isn't dark to him. Your mysteries aren't mysterious to him. Your surprises don't surprise him. He understands all the things that confuse you the most.

Wherever your story takes you, you'll never arrive there first, because your Lord is already there in sovereign presence and power, and he rules that place in infinite wisdom and holiness.

the more you focus on your own neediness, the more your desires will be christened as needs.

You and I can face the harsh realities of life in this broken world with courage and hope because we do not face them all by ourselves. Immanuel ("God with us") is indeed with us in power, glory, and grace.

Unlike human love, which is often fickle and temporary, God's love never fails, no matter what.

No, this is eternal and deeply personal hope. It rests in the truth that Jesus has wrapped his powerful arms around you and he will never, ever let you go.

Perhaps in ways that you have never come close to considering, your dissatisfaction is an awe problem.

If you put too many things in your need category, you will end up frustrated with life, hurt by others, and doubting God's goodness.

the true crisis in the modern evangelical church is not dissatisfaction; it's the opposite. We're all too satisfied.

God's often-repeated declaration that he will not leave sits on the pages of his Word as a protection against the lies to which suffering makes us susceptible.