the same pursuit of JOY

reflections from chapter 1 of "Desiring God":

God is the source and the author of JOY/HAPPINESS.

let that sink in.

God IS joy. eternal, everlasting, all-encompassing joy. He is greater than the joy you felt as a kid opening presents on Christmas day. He is greater than the joy a mother/father feels when they see their newborn child. He is greater than the joy two lovers feel when they are married.

and He is the author of that joy.

therefore, what is the greatest, most loving act God can do for us?

give us HIMSELF!

by giving Himself to us to enjoy, He is in effect, allowing us the pleasure and opportunity to experience the most purest and highest form of that JOY which we usually experience in glimpses and mere shades in this life.

and this joy is magnified and realized even more fully in the act of praising Him. expressing praise over something/someone makes our delight complete. just like a parent swooning over their child makes their joy in that child more complete.

piper writes, "we praise what we enjoy because the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in praise...so if God loves us enough to make our joy full, He must not only give us Himself; He must also win from us the praise of our hearts - not because He needs to shore up some weakness in Himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because He loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can be found only in knowing and praising Him, the most magnificent of all Beings...God is the one Being in all the universe for whom seeking His own praise is the ultimately loving act."

"therefore, God's pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in Him are the same pursuit. This is the great gospel!"

dear friends, praise Him today! and learn to experience the fullness of joy that is found in Him this day.