Paul David Tripp - Awe: Why It Matters For Everything We Think, Say, & Do

Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

Sign-up for the Crossway Newsletter for updates on special offers, new resources, and exciting global ministry initiatives:

Crossway Newsletter

Or, if you prefer, we would love to connect with you online:

I still remember the first time I was in awe of God. It came after years of attending churches and calling myself Christian. It was a major turning point in my life. It is an awe of God that inspires my major life decisions as well as my daily actions. Thank you, Paul, for getting beyond symptoms and getting at the heart of the matter. This book is brilliant, and I wish every believer would read it carefully. We live in a crazy time. We need books like this to help lay healthy foundations for our lives, so that we dont spend our days overreacting to unpredictable events.

Francis Chan,New York Times best-selling author, Crazy Love and Forgotten God

Paul Tripp has a way of helping us to get beyond the surface. It is clear that Paul has thought through this subject deeply. Read this book and find yourself challenged and encouraged to stand in awe of the reality of God and to take him seriously because of it!

Eric M. Mason, Lead Pastor, Epiphany Fellowship, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; President, Thriving; author, Manhood Restored

Paul Tripps books always challenge me and draw me closer to Christ. This book is no exception. As followers of Jesus, we can sometimes get too comfortable with God. Its easy to forget that part of knowing and loving God is revering him. If you will read this book with a hungry and humble heart, God will use it to deepen your passion for Christ as you rediscover just who God is and why were invited to revel in his awesome glory.

Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor, LifeChurch.tv; author, WEIRD: Because Normal Isnt Working

Simply put, I read everything that Paul Tripp writes. I cant afford to miss one word.

Ann Voskamp, author, New York Times best seller One Thousand Gifts

Deep in the soul of every human being is a longing for transcendence, created by God himself. Yet all too often, our pursuits and passions fixate on things that will never satisfy. What we need most desperately is to fall to our knees in renewed awe of our Creator. In Awe, my good friend Paul Tripp motivates us to find that posture and delight in staying there.

James MacDonald, Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel, Rolling Meadows, Illinois; author, Vertical Church

When you find yourself in awe of something, you never forget it. It changes you. I just finished reading this book, and Im writing this at 2:45 a.m. in tears. Convictednot of my sin but of my righteousness in Christ! In awe of who Jesus is and who I am in him! Tripp has tapped into something that I hope is like a defibrillator to the flatlined believer. We were made to live in awe; may we never forget this!

Bart Millard, Lead Singer, MercyMe

Other Crossway Books by Paul David Tripp:

Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of PastoralMinistry (2012)

New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional (2014)

Sex and Money: Pleasures That Leave You Empty and Grace ThatSatisfies (2013)

A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble (2009)

What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage (2010)

Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy (2008)

AWE

WHY IT MATTERS FOR
EVERYTHING
WE THINK, SAY, & DO

PAUL DAVID TRIPP

Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do

Copyright 2015 by Paul David Tripp

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Tim Green, Faceout Studio

First printing 2015

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4707-2
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4710-2
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4708-9
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4709-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tripp, Paul David, 1950

Awe : why it matters for everything we think, say, and do / Paul David Tripp.

1 online resource.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-4335-4708-9 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-4335-4709-6 (mobi) ISBN 978-1-4335-4710-2 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4335-4707-2 (hc)

1. God (Christianity)Worship and love. 2. Awe. I. Title.

BV4817

248.4dc23 2015010748

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To DC, Matthew, and Matt,
young friends in life and ministry.
Our gospel conversation has made me love Jesus more.

I should start with an admission. I wrote this book for me. I am an Epicurean of sorts. I love the visual arts, I love great music, and I love food of all kinds. A beautiful, well-executed painting leaves me in awe. A bands well-constructed album leaves me amazed and wanting more. The memory of a tasting menu at a great restaurant leaves me wanting to recreate dishes and revisit the establishment. None of these things are wrong in themselves. God intended us to be in awe of his creation, but that awe cannot and should not be an end in itself.

I wrote this book for me because, at this point in my life, I am more aware than ever that I have a fickle and wandering heart. I wish I could say that every moment I enjoy some created thing initiates in me a deeper worship of the Creator, but it doesnt. Empirical evidence in my life betrays that I give my heart to the worship of the thing that has been made rather than the One who made itspending when I dont really have a need, envying what someone else has, or eating when Im not really that hungry.

I wrote this book for me because I am aware that I need to spend more time gazing upon the beauty of the Lord. I need to put my heart in a place where it can once again be in awe of the grandeur of God that reaches far beyond the bounds of the most expressive words in the human vocabulary. I need awe of him to recapture, refocus, and redirect my heart again and again. And I need to remember that the war for the awe of my heart still wages inside me.

I wrote this book for me because I need to examine what kind of awe shapes my thoughts, desires, words, choices, and actions in the situations and relationships that make up my everyday life. Three years ago I lost forty pounds. That I needed to at all embarrassed me. Writing this book reminded me that my weight gain was a spiritual issue, a matter of my heart before God. Like all other forms of subtle idolatry, it didnt happen overnight. If you gain half a pound per month, you will not notice it. But thats six pounds per year, and in five years you will have put on thirty pounds. Sadly, I had to confess the sin of gluttony, put food in its proper place, and cry out for the grace to worship the Giver, not his gifts.