Fight for Joy?

I'm excited about a book I just started called When I Don't Desire God, by John Piper. He has written many books based around the idea of what he has called "Christian Hedonism," which is succinctly defined by him in the phrase "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." This book seems like it is singing that same tune, but with a twist. He wants to answer the question people have asked him so often: "What do I do when I don't desire God?" His answer is,in short, that it is a battle. It's a fight for joy in Christ:

The fight for joy in Christ is not a fight to soften the cushion of Western comforts. It is a fight to live a self-sacrificing love...The key to endurance in the cause of self-sacrificing love is not heroic willpower, but deep, unshakable confidence that the joy we have tasted in fellowship with Christ will not disappoint us in death (pp 20-21, emphasis mine).


It's going to be an important book for me right now. I'm very excited about reading it. Please pray that God would use it to bring honor to his great Name through me.

Comments

Liz Power Photography said…
Onward Christian Soldiers. Do we still sing this song? My struggles are not with flesh and blood "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places," Eph 6:12 KJV Joy robbers are people, places and things. Love, Poppy
March 3, 2009 at 7:33 AM
johnepower said…
Paul definitely wants us to be in a battle-mentality in Ephesians 6. The whole Christian life is a fight! Piper is telling us, too, that it is a fight for joy in Christ, rather than a fight to simply obey Christ. He calls this "seeing and savoring Jesus Christ."
March 3, 2009 at 11:52 AM
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