For God, Family and Republic

When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy
(Crossway Books. Publisher's Date, Sept. 25, 2004, 272 pp. Retail $12.99. Amazon.com $9.74)

I've read quite a bit of John Piper, and this past year I have found a pick-me-up in one of his recent works When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy. Therein, he squares this book with his profound doctrine of 'Christian Hedonism' which was first advanced in Desiring God. John Piper notes:

Christian Hedonism is a liberating and devastating doctrine. It teaches that the value of God shines more brightly in the soul that finds deepest satisfaction in him. Therefore it is liberating because it endorses our inborn desire for joy. And it is devastating because it reveals that no one desires God with the passion he demands. Paradoxically, many people experience both of these truths. That certainly is my own experience.

Joy in God is not merely the icing on the cake. Joy is much more than that. Our being satisfied in God shows God's worthiness and that he is necessary to sustain the sacrifices of love. It was the joy before Him, that sustained Christ on that cruel cross. It is the joy before us, that ought to sustain us in our spiritual struggles. We have to fight for joy. Christ has secured victory through the finished work of the Cross.

Piper makes no bones about the fact that life can be tough. Likewise, 2 Timothy 2:3 reminds us, "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (NKJV). In C.S. Lewis' Problem of Pain, he opines:

There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else... It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work... All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it.

C.S. Lewis conveys what many Christians feel in their spiritual walk, a loss of passion for spiritual things, and a loss of zeal for the joy of our salvation. There simply are times in our lives when we don't desire God, nor the things of God. Indeed, this is the condition of the natural man: "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God" (Romans 3:10-11, NKJV).

The Christian believer has to be on guard, and we have to fight the good fight, and run with endurance. As Hebrews 12:1 declares: "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (NKJV). John Piper itinerates that we have to fight for joy, and savor the joy of our salvation. "When I saw the truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, I was freed from the unbiblical of fear that it was wrong to pursue joy," declares Piper. This aforesaid statement is the focal point of Piper's book.

Piper's book gives sound exhortation on how to fight for joy. Throughout this book, Piper is rigorously Scriptural. Also, Piper speaks in an understandable and lucid manner. We fight for joy by being vigilant in our prayer life. Piper devotes a whole chapter to prayer. We have to fight for joy like a justified sinner. We fight for joy by setting our sights on the promises of God, and preaching the Gospel to ourselves—and embracing that pivotal doctrine of justification by faith alone. Piper fittingly ends the book, not with a touchy-feely, self-help motivational theme, but rather with a chapter entitled When The Darkness Doesn't Lift. Herein, Piper manifests his practical nature as a Bible teacher. With a heart of passion for the glory of Christ, John Piper has erected a most profound and spiritually uplifting book.

What makes Piper so profound is that he is the fact that he selectively appeals to other Christian luminaries, John Bunyan, Dietriech Bonhoeffer, Jonathan Edwards, C.S. Lewis, and brings his own unique style and profound wisdom to bear.

This book is available online for free at Desiring God.