The Most Liberating Discovery

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. (Philippians 3:1)

No one had ever taught me that God is glorified by our joy in him — that joy in God is the very thing that makes our praise an honor to God, and not hypocrisy.

But Jonathan Edwards said it so clearly and powerfully:

God glorifies himself towards the creatures also [in] two ways: (1) by appearing to . . . their understanding; (2) in communicating himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying the manifestations which he makes of himself. . . . God is glorified not only by his glory being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . .

[W]hen those that see it delight in it: God is more glorified than if they only see it. . . . He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [doesn’t] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.

This was a stunning discovery for me. I must pursue joy in God if I am to glorify him as the surpassingly valuable Reality in the universe. Joy is not a mere option alongside worship. It is an essential component of worship. Indeed the very essence of worship — being glad in the glories of God.

We have a name for those who speak their praises of God when they have no pleasure in what they praise. We call them hypocrites. Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’” (Matthew 15:7–8). This fact — that authentic praise means consummate pleasure and that the highest end of man is to drink deeply of this pleasure for God’s glory — was perhaps the most liberating discovery I have ever made.

John Piper 

What Your Tears Can Teach You

 

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.”

PSALM 119:71

 

PONDER THIS

In today’s Scripture, David said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” Have you ever said that? Oh, God thank You for this sickness. Thank You for this suffering. Thank You for this adversity. Thank You for this problem. Thank You for this heartache. Thank You for this thing I’m going through. It takes a lot of faith to say it is good for me that I have been afflicted. And David said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.” Did you know that affliction is sometimes the best teacher? We never see as clearly as when we see through eyes that have been washed through tears. When we get on our backs, it’s then that we begin to look up into the face of God. A sick bed can often teach more than a sermon.

How have you experienced the reality of learning faithfulness to God through suffering?

Who do you know who is suffering today?

PRACTICE THIS

Take action today in a specific way to encourage someone who is suffering.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

Psalm 119:67

    [67] Before I was afflicted I went astray,

        but now I keep your word.

Hebrews 12:6-11

    [6] For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

        and chastises every son whom he receives.”

    [7] It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? [8] If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. [9] Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? [10] For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. [11] For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Isaiah 35:3-4

    [3] Strengthen the weak hands,

        and make firm the feeble knees. 

    [4] Say to those who have an anxious heart,

        “Be strong; fear not!

    Behold, your God

        will come with vengeance,

    with the recompense of God.

        He will come and save you.”

Job 4:3-4

    [3] Behold, you have instructed many,

        and you have strengthened the weak hands. 

    [4] Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,

        and you have made firm the feeble knees.

Make War with Unbelief

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:16–17)

When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:7–9).

When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of my faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promises, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6); and, “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Join me in this battle! Let us make war, not with other people, but with our own unbelief. Unbelief in the promises of God is the root of anxiety, which, in turn, is the root of so many other sins. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God, Paul said in Ephesians 6:17. The shield by which we quench Satan’s fiery deceits is faith (verse 16) — faith in that very word of God. So take up the shield in your left hand and the sword in your right hand, and let us fight the good fight of faith.

Take up the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit for help, lay the promises up in your heart, and fight the good fight — to live by faith in future grace.

John Piper 

Would Your Boss Notice Your Faith?

“Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” 

EPHESIANS 6:5-7

 

PONDER THIS

I want to let you in on a secret. If we would begin to live on Monday like these verses describe, people would start believing what we preach on Sunday. What better place could there be to witness for Jesus Christ than on the job? Your job is your temple of devotion; it is your lamp stand for witness. The boss would say, “I don’t understand these Christians. They’re here on time. They work with smiles on their faces. They’re very careful. They’re honest. They don’t steal a thing. I can trust them with the entire business. They seem to be devoted to the business as if they own it.” When a man goes to hire new workers, he ought to think, “Those are the kind of people I want.”

But it’s not in human nature to do that. Human nature is to get by with as little as you can and get as much as you can. How are we going to live as these verses describe? You don’t have what it takes. That’s not your nature. By nature, you are selfish, but being Spirit-filled you can live this way.

How does your relationship with the Lord change the way you work each day?

How does this change your perspective on daily routine tasks?

PRACTICE THIS

What tasks are in front of you today? Consider how it would look to do these tasks to the Lord and take action to follow through.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

 

Bible Study

 

1 Peter 2:18

[18] Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4

[3] But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. [4] For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Ephesians 5:22-23

[22] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

1 Timothy 2:14

[14] and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Our Good Is His Glory

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

One common objection to Christian Hedonism is that it puts the interests of man above the glory of God — that it puts my happiness above God’s honor. But Christian Hedonism most emphatically does not do this.

To be sure, we Christian Hedonists endeavor to pursue our interest and our happiness with all our might. We endorse the resolution of the young Jonathan Edwards: “Resolved: To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

But we have learned from the Bible (and from Edwards!) that God’s interest is to magnify the fullness of his glory by spilling over in mercy to us — to us sinners, who desperately need him.

Therefore, the pursuit of our interest and our happiness, even if it costs us our lives, is never above God’s interest and God’s happiness and God’s glory, but always in God’s. One of the most precious truths in the Bible is that God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of his grace by making sinners happy in him — in him!

When we humble ourselves like little children and put on no airs of self-sufficiency, but run happily into the joy of our Father’s embrace, the glory of his grace is magnified and the longing of our soul is satisfied. Our interest and his glory become one.

When Jesus promises in Matthew 6:6, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you,” this is a reward he wants us to seek. He does not lure us with joy we shouldn’t have! But this reward — this joy — is the overflow of turning away from human praise, and going into our closet to seek God.

Therefore, Christian Hedonists do not put their happiness above God’s glory. They put their happiness in God himself and discover the glorious truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

John Piper