Os Guiness on Desire

"The very fact that we humans experience desire is proof that we are creatures. Incomplete in ourselves, we desire whatever we think is beckoning to complete us. God alone needs nothing outside of himself, because he himself is the highest and the only lasting good. So all objects we desire short of God are as finite and incomplete as we ourselves are and, therefore, disappointing if we make them the objects of ultimate desire."

-- The Call, 13

Piper on Desires

John Piper, in When I Don't Desire God, writes of the importance of fighting for joy:

"God is glorified in his people by the way we experience him, not merely by the way we think about him. Indeed the devil thinks more true thoughts about God in one day than a saint does in a lifetime, and God is not honored by it. The problem with the devil is not his theology, but his desires."

If you've read much Piper, you know how vitally important it is to him that we think properly about God and understand the marvelous depths of truth about Him and in Him. Yet if that's as far as we go, then we haven't really understood. Does your theology and understanding lead to greater desire for God? Is your faith limited to thinking, or does it go beyond that?

Piper on Desiring God

I began reading through John Piper's new book, When I Don't Desire God, and not surprisingly I highly recommend it. In this book Piper seeks to help readers fight for joy when their desire for God seems to wane.

"It is helpful to be reminded that our desires - no matter how small - have been awakened by the spiritual taste we once had of the presence of God. They are an evidence that we have tasted."

Piper goes on to tell us that desire for God will never abate, but that in the age to come it will be ever fulfilled and heightened as we experience God (and each other) unencumbered by sins and that which distracts us from exulting in Christ:

"In the age to come, desire for more of God will never be experienced with impatience or ingratitude or frustration. All desire in the age to come will be the sweetest anticipation, rooted ever more deeply in the enlarging memories of joy and in the ever gathering pleasures of gratitude." (both quote from page 28).

What is your desire of/for God? What do you do when other desires compete with what you know is good and right and perfect; when the concerns of the world choke out pleasure in and desire for God?