Piper on Prayer

Prayer is the very heart of Christian Hedonism.  God gets the glory, we get the delight.  He gets the glory precisely because He shows Himself full and strong to deliver us into joy.  And we attain fullness of joy precisely because He is the all-glorious source and goal of life.  Here is a great discovery: we do not glorify God by providing His needs, but by praying that He would provide ours – and trusting Him to answer.

From: Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper; 3rd edition (Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2003), p. 163.  Originally published in 1986.

John Piper (born in 1946) has been Senior Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 1980.  He is a prolific author.

 

God’s Wisdom vs. Man’s Wisdom

In the wisdom of God, “it pleased God, through the folly of what we preach, to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1.21).  This so-called “folly of what we preach” is the word of the cross – foolishness in man’s eyes, but wisdom in God’s eyes.  So, knowing God through the wisdom of the world is contrasted with being saved by believing the message about Christ crucified.

The point, here, is that there is no true knowledge of God and no salvation apart from childlike dependence on the grace of God in Christ crucified.  If we are not willing to see ourselves as helpless, ungodly sinners and cast ourselves for mercy on the grace of God in Christ, we will not know God or be saved by Him.

From: Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God by John Piper (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2010), pp. 148-149.

 

Living on the Brink of Eternity

Our final summary emphasis should be this: in 1 Timothy 6, Paul’s purpose is to help us lay hold of eternal life and not lose it.  Paul never dabbles in unessentials.  He lives on the brink of eternity.  That’s why he sees things so clearly.  He stands there, like God’s gatekeeper, and treats us like reasonable Christian Hedonists: you want life that is life indeed, don’t you (verse 19)?  You don’t want ruin, destruction, and pangs of heart, do you (verses 9-10)?  You want all the gain that godliness can bring, don’t you (verse 6)?  Then use the currency of Christian Hedonism wisely: do not desire to be rich, be content with the wartime necessities of life, set your hope fully on God, guard yourself from pride, and let your joy in God overflow in a wealth of liberality to a lost and needy world.

From: Desiring God by John Piper; 3rd edition (Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2003 [1986]), p. 203.