Piper on our Fixation with Personal Comfort

These words from John Piper, written shortly after 9/11/01, are worthy of significant consideration:

There is a mindset in the prosperous West that we deserve pain-free, trouble-free existence. When life deals us the opposite, we have a right not only to blame somebody or some system and to feel sorry for ourselves, but also to devote most of our time to coping, so that we have no time or energy left over for serving others.

This mind-set gives a trajectory to life that is almost universal - namely, away from stress and toward comfort and safety and relief. Then within that very natural trajectory some people begin to think of ministry and find ways of serving God inside the boundaries set by the aims of self-protection. Then churches grow up in this mindset, and it never occurs to anyone in such a community of believers that choosing discomfort, stress, and danger might be the right thing - even the normal, biblical thing - to do. 

-- John Piper, The Roots of Endurance, 18

There is enough in those two paragraphs to chew on for days. It cuts right to the heart of many hot-button political and societal issues. But more to the point, it calls us to ask some tough questions about how we as believers and as churches live in the world.

Beholding God's Gift of Himself

I'm slowly working my way through Piper's God Is the Gospel. He is arguing that we often perceive (and describe and preach) the gospel as being centered on us (ie "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life...") and offering us some other gift (a happy life, the American dream, a better marriage, purpose and meaning, etc.). Piper's thesis is that at the heart of the Gospel is God's greatest gift: Himself.

"The sad thing is that a radically man-centered view of love permeates our culture and our churches. From the time they can toddle we teach our children that feeling loved means being made much of..."

"There are clues in every human heart even before conversion to Christ. One of those clues is that no one goes to the Grand Canyon or the Alps to increase his self-esteem. That is not what happens in front of massive deeps and majestic heights. But we do go there, and we go for joy... In wonderful moments of illumination there is a witness in our hearts: soul-health and great happiness come not from beholding a great self but a great splendor."

John Piper, God Is the Gospel, 12-13

Piper's IOUS Prayer

I think the following prayer outline is helpful. I got it from a message John Piper delivered at the New Attitude Conference that is available on the Sovereign Grace website for free download. It presents a way to pray (using Psalms) as you approach the Scriptures:

I — Incline my heart to Your testimonies (Psalm 119:36)
O — Open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things in Your Word (Psalm 119:8)
U — Unite my heart to fear Your name (Psalm 86:11)
S — Satisfy me in the morning... (Psalm 90:14)

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?