Today Tim shared about another John Piper book: When I Don't Desire God. We had a lot of good, confusing discussion about what it means to have joy in the Lord, for Him to be our ultimate desire, how do we address depression, etc. Unfortunately I forgot to type up the questions and discussion we had (there was a lot, and of good quality. You should have been there.) but fortunately Tim has notes, so go ahead and read the whole post!
You can also download for free, legally, any of John Piper's books here.
Desiring God
The five principles of Christian Hedonism:
1. The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.
2. We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse. Instead, we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.
3. The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, but in God.
4. The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.
5. To the extent that we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: The pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and
virtue. That is: The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. Or to put it another way, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”: “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, 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.”
Read Psalms 16:11, 37:4, 42:1-2, 63:1. We see this sort of hedonistic language everywhere.
Read Matthew 13:44-46. God is the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price, so we should give up everything else to seek him.
Read 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. We are called to run so as to win the prize.
Read Philippians 3:7-8. We are called to give up everything to gain Christ.
Read Hebrews 12:1-2. Christ, our example gave himself for us “for the joy set before him.”
Misunderstandings:
1) Christian Hedonism does not mean that God wants us to have worldly pleasures.
2) Christian Hedonism does not make an idol out of pleasure. Rather it says that our own pleasure is the highest form of worship.
When I Don’t Desire God
We should clear up two possible misunderstandings. First, we should point observe that although we speak of “desiring joy” or “fighting for joy,” we always mean that such joy ought to be found in God. Joy by itself, without God as its object, is of no value. Second, our goal is not simply to be comfortable. Rather, true joy should compel us to give up our own comfort to obtain something far better. God should be our treasure.
Christian Hedonism doesn’t just free us to take joy in serving God. It also tells us that enjoying God should be the focus of our lives. But yet we face the problem that often we don’t enjoy God as we should. We may be able to exert some control over our actions by sheer willpower, but to make ourselves enjoy God is impossible, because of our sinful nature (Psalm 51:5, Romans 7:18, Romans 8:7). Only God can change our hearts. Yet this does not excuse our guilt. Rather, if we are too corrupt to even desire what is good, this makes us all the more guilty. C.S. Lewis wrote, “A perfect man would never act from a sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one.” But yet often we have wrong desires, or we desire good things for wrong reasons.
According to Jeremiah 2:13, we have committed two great evils: forsaking God, and seeking joy in other things. We must fight against our sinful desires to take joy in Christ. We make three observations which will be foundational for the rest of our discussion. First, not only joy, but the ability to fight for joy is itself a gift. In 1 Corinthians 15:10, we see that Paul worked harder than anyone, not by his own effort, but by God’s grace. Philippians 2:12-13 similarly describes how God’s work does not eliminate our own need to work, but rather enables us. Second, our fight for joy does not coerce God to give us this gift, as something we have earned. Rather, it puts us in the place where God has promised blessing. We are not promised when and how this joy will arrive, but we commanded to be faithful in seeking it. Third, the fight for joy is first and always a fight to see. We want to see the glory of Christ and his true worth. 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that the enemy attempts to blind us to this light. This explains our paradox. We fight to remove the obstacles that prevent us from seeing. Our joy then arises spontaneously from seeing Christ’s beauty, not as a reward for our fight, but as a gift.
In the midst of our struggle, we have the great comfort that God will eventually accomplish a great transformation in us, changing our desires so that we will desire him above all else (Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 11:19-20, Ezekiel 36:27). This is the true meaning of repentance. Our fight for joy should be strategic, but our success ultimately depends on God’s grace (Proverbs 21:31, Psalm 127:1). In addition, we know that from God’s view, the fight has already been won. We must distinguish between our justification and our sanctification. When we fail, we can take heart that God will raise us up again (Micah 7:8-9).
How do we fight? Our weapons should be familiar, although we may not be accustomed to using them in this way. Our primary weapons are the Bible, especially the message of the gospel, and prayer. We are told that the Word should be our delight (Psalm 1:2-3), and that the point of prayer is to make our joy complete (John 16:24). Each of these must be treated seriously, as real weapons. We must plan carefully our Bible study and our daily prayer. In addition, we may find joy in the physical world, for which we can praise God (Psalm 19:1-4).
What do we do when after all of this, we are still in despair? First, the cause may be physical, and in these cases medication may be helpful. Otherwise, we must wait patiently for God (Psalm 40:1-3). How can we help those who are searching desperately to regain their faith? Knowing them will help us know what they need to hear. But here are a few possible things to help. First, we need to communicate God’s love to them, because they may not feel his love in any other way. Second, we should point their attention to Christ. Analyzing our faith will leave us discouraged. But focusing on Christ as the object of our faith will restore its trustworthiness, because we know that he can use even a faith as small as a mustard seed to move mountains. Third, we should try to find the evidence of God’s grace in their lives. This may be useless in the short term, but over the long term we should see God’s faithfulness in their lives. Fourth, we should realize that we do not require mathematical certainty in our other relationships, so we should not expect to find such certainty in our relationship with God.
One thing we must never do is tell someone to “just do your duty and act like a Christian, even when you don’t feel like one.” This is a very incomplete answer. First, we must add that joy is a duty and a command. Second, this means that there is most likely some element of pride or self-pity mingled with depression, which needs to be confessed. Some may object that this is adding to their burden. But we do not help someone by giving them false comfort. We should say, “If you can, get up from your bed and make a meal, or sweep a room, or take a walk, or visit a friend, or go to work. But it is not a matter of indifference whether you do this with joy in God, and if you can’t, then tell him so, and that you are sorry. He will hear you mercifully and forgive.”
Third, in the midst of our despair, we must ask that God would restore his joy to us as we do what we can. We are not being hypocritical if we realize that joy is our duty, and repent because we do not feel joyful. This is how a Christian ought to behave. Fourth, we should thank God for what he has given us the will to do, even when we do not feel thankful. Again, this is not hypocritical, because our point is not to conceal our ingratitude, but to request God’s mercy. “Thanksgiving stirreth up thankfulness in the heart.”
Finally, we should examine ourselves to see if there is any unconfessed sin. Read David’s testimony in Psalm 32:2-3. When he kept silent rather than confessing his sins, he “groaned all day long.” We know that when we confess this sin, God will not hold it against us, but will cancel our debt and forgive us. We are also told to confess our sins to one another, and to pray for one another. If we have wronged another person, we should apologize.
We may also be in spiritual darkness because of the work of Satan. But we have three great comforts in this. First, Satan is under God’s authority, and cannot do more than God permits. Second, his ultimate defeat is certain. Third, Satan is most often defeated by the power of the truth, rather than by a dramatic exorcism.
All of this may feel like added guilt for the depressed person. But hiding it is like hiding part of the diagnosis of someone’s disease. We must tell them the truth, so that they can know what they really need to fight for.
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