"When infinite joy is offered, we are like an ignorant child who wants to go
on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
Our purpose on this earth is to glorify, honor, serve and proclaim God's name! We are able to accomplish this purpose by delighting and rejoicing in God. Piper says that,
"God created you so that you might spend eternity glorifying Him by enjoying Him forever...Worship is not added to joy, and joy is not the by-product of worship. Worship is the valuing of God. And when this valuing is intense, it is joy in God. Therefore, the essence of worship is delight in God, which displays His all-satisfying value."
God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him. We want Christ to be glorified in everything. Paul writes in Philippians 1:20-21 that Christ will be exalted in His body, whether by life or by death. He goes on to say that for him to live is Christ and to die is gain. Should it not be the same way with us? God will be glorified through our death if we look at it as gain, but we exalt Christ in life by experiencing Christ as our all-surpassing treasure. John Piper states that,
"...life and death, for a Christian are acts of worship-they exalt Christ and magnify Him and reveal and express His greatness - when they come from an inner experience of treasuring Christ as gain. If Christ's honor is our passion, the pursuit of pleasure in Him is our duty."
Christ is praised by being prized. We are commanded, not just to make decisions, but to have feelings; to delight in Christ and to have a personal relationship with Him. A lot of people believe that feelings don't count when following Christ, so just do it. But we need to understand that, yes, it is our duty to delight in serving Him, but He is more glorified when we actually find pleasure in delighting and serving Him. Serving the Lord, increases our joy in the Lord, so we shouldn't pity ourselves, especially when serving the Lord. We should DELIGHT in doing good. The pursuit of pleasure is not recommended - it is mandatory.
"We don't pity or excessively praise those who are simply doing what will make them the most happy...The only way to glorify the all-sufficiency of God is to come to Him because in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasure for ever more."
~John Piper
The pursuit of true gain is an essential motive for every good deed. Genuine love always relates to God as gain. The nature of genuine love can be seen in four things according to Piper:
- Love is a work of divine grace. - 2 Cor. 8:1
- This experience of God's grace fills us with joy - 2 Cor. 8:2
- This joy overflows in generosity to meet the needs of others.
- This results in giving even your smallest possessions. - 2 Cor. 8:3-4
2 comments:
Hey Amy-
I definitely agree that “The Dangerous Duty of Delight” is an awesome reminder that we are meant to live delighting in our salvation at all times! When I read this book a few years ago there was something that caught my attention the most . . . it was the part about “what a Christian should do if the cheerfulness of obedience is not there (pg 30-31).” The steps are as follows:
When lacking in joy:
1. Confess the sin of joylessness.
2. Pray earnestly that God would restore the joy of obedience.
3. Go ahead and do the outward dimension of your duty in the hope that the doing will rekindle the delight.
These steps have influenced my life because there are so many times in my life that I don’t “feel” joyful. Sometimes I wake up cranky, agitated, sleepy, selfish, lacking in joy, and my soul can be simply downcast. I have now learned that rather than keeping this downcast feeling bottled up, I confess to the Lord that my soul is downcast and that I desire to be joyful. I pray that God would restore to me the joy of my salvation and I confess my lack of joy as sin. I then have to make a conscious effort to “choose joy” and to “live in the Spirit.” Thus far, God has remained faithful, and I am so excited that His mercies are new every morning. Praise God for JOY, and praise him for His salvation that brings true joy!
Thanks for the encouraging post on a topic that is so dear to my heart. I too want to “strive continuously to live for Christ, delighting in Him.”
Amy, that is awesome and I am excited to see you encouraged to deleight in Him. It is definatley about choosing Him and allowing Him to be our joy. I love that quote from Piper about being too easily satified because really we most often are. We go through life "caught up in the moment" and get by without seeking Him for our everything. I know God will continue to grow and mature you and love that you girls encourage me to run the race harder. Love you sister.
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