Desiring God by John Piper (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 4.
Now Piper defends his thesis that the pursuit of pleasure is an essential motive for every good deed.
Thus love:
(i) is more than deeds, it involves feelings too;
(ii) is the overflow of joy in God;
(iii) is a cheerful giver;
(iv) rejoices in the joy of the beloved;
(v) delights to cause and contemplate joy in others;
(vi) weeps;
(vii) keeps the reward of love in mind;
(viii) enjoys ministry;
(ix) is not easily pleased;
(x) suffers for joy;
(xi) and reward are organically related;
(xii) longs for the power of grace.
Good chapter.
I particularly appreciated the reminder to enjoy the ministry: 'In 1 Peter 5:1-2, Peter writes, I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder . . .: Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not under constraint, but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly. In other words, "God loves a cheerful pastor." Notice how hedonistic these admonitions are. Peter does not admonish pastors to simply do their work, come what may. Perseverance through the hard times is good. It is essential! But it is not all that is commanded of pastors. We are commanded to enjoy our work! Peter condemns two motives. One is "constraint." Don't do your work under constraint. This means the impulse should come gladly from within, not oppressively from without. Parental pressure, congregational expectations, fear of failure or divine censure-these are not good motives for staying in the pastoral ministry. There should be an inner willingness. We should want to do the ministry. It should be our joy. Joy in ministry is a duty!-a light burden and an easy yoke.'
Without joy, your ministry will crumble.
Read Chapter 5.
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
3 comments:
Joel you're a weapon for reading. So steady.
You're absolutely right that without joy our ministries will crumble. And this was a good chapter.
Would be keen to hear your thoughts on how to have the "essential" perserverance through the hard times? And how this fits with Piper's cheerful pastor idea?
I guess there may always be a thought - even in the hard times - that there is nothing else you'd rather be than a servant of the gospel. But, what do you think is called for when affections and desires "dry up" so to speak.
Josh,
Asking how to stay joyful during the tough times is a very large question - whole books are written in response to it and the fact that they are still being written shows that it is still being answered.
But, for what it's worth, here are two thoughts.
(i) The best thing to keep joy in your life is meditating on the gospel. If you keep going back to the cross and truly understand that God could have passed over you and not drawn you to himself, then you will be always joyfully thankful to him.
(ii) The other tip I can offer is to place acute pain in its proper perspective with eternity. As Paul says, 'I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.' (Rom 8:18) Think about whether what you are so stressed about will matter in a million years time, let alone 10 billion years. This has been one of the most helpful antidotes to suffering that I have known.
Happy new year brother.
I like your two fundamental points here.
And as I finished on this chapter this arvo, I was particularly struck by Piper's idea that we find joy in the seeking of our reward in heaven (being made glorious like Jesus) *AND* in the partial experience of that glory now. So our final salvation is partially realised, and we find joy in that.
Or in Piper's words, we get "addicted" to that, because far more than wanting to enjoy the pleasures of the here and now, once we've tasted the heavenly glory of knowing God, we want it in increasing capacity.
This clarified some things for me about the hedonist mentality.
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