June 28, 2025

God reveals Himself in my JOY!

 

Today’s devotional had nothing for me so I looked in a more recent publication where Piper writes about the rare teaching of Jonathon Edwards, a man who taught a rarely heard solution to all Christian problems. Piper’s classic “The Pleasures of God” just before the one about Edwards, and has encouraged many believers. It describes what Edwards taught, that our focus needs to be simply enjoying God for who He is and how I need to love the Lord for His own greatness and beauty. I also must distinguish it from love that delights only in His gifts. It is love in which my pleasure is in God himself.

This is a vital issue. How easily I love health, prosperity, answered prayers, warm fellowship, all the good things God blesses me with, but where is my joy if these are withheld? Does it fly out the window and leave me feeling unloved, not cared about? Yesterday I spent the afternoon with a few friends and came home sad, telling hubby that if I had not been there, no one would have missed me. Yikes. Joy in God? Or joy in His blessings?

It is easy to write about the basics of the gospel, about God’s glorious perfections, man’s fallen nature, the wonders of redemptive history, the magnificent work of redemption in Christ, the saving and sanctifying work of grace, our Christian conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and our hope of everlasting joy with our Lord, but much harder to live it. 

I don’t what to be a hypocrite — all talk and no do. I want the mind-shaping knowledge and the transforming enjoyment of God and His glory. I don’t want my knowledge of Him to rest lightly on me as it does on so many. One person says, “It is this God, majestic and holy in his being, this God whose love knows no bounds because his holiness knows no limits, who has disappeared from the modern evangelical world.” I don’t want that, and now see how deeply revival is needed, but it must start with me.

God does everything that He does—absolutely everything—for the sake of displaying His glory. He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. Nothing exists or remains without His word. Everything has its reason for existing and nothing can be understood apart from Him. All understandings that leave Him out are superficial understandings since they leave out the most important reality in the universe. This is stated in what I read, and I believe it. This needs to be more than that faith but also action. I must share it for declaring His glory is the purpose behind why He created the universe. Edwards stated it something like this: 

God is glorified by appearing and revealing Himself in His Son, who is the brightness of His glory. He also enjoys and delights in Himself, by flowing forth in His Holy Spirit. He also glorifies Himself by appearing to our understanding and by communicating Himself to our hearts. In other words, when I rejoice and delight in His revealing of Himself, He is glorified, not only that His glory is seen, but rejoiced in my mind and heart, and that glory shines out to all those around me. 

Only hypocrites make ‘self’ the foundation of their joy, but a true follower of Jesus Christ is inexpressibly pleased and delighted with the glorious nature of God. This is vital for I must deny self, “choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” (Hebrews 11:25) to walk with Him: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11) That is to say, self-life is the cause of all sorrow and self-denial “destroys the root of sorrow.” Consider these verses:
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (Matthew 5:11)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2–3)
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. (Acts 5:41)
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. (Hebrews 10:34)
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
The pursuit of His joy doesn’t contradict suffering — it carries it. This joy is a faith matter, not walking by sight that perceives only the comfortable stuff as good:
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, (1 Peter 1:8)
PRAY: Jesus, for years Christians have been told not to let emotions control our lives, yet this is an error. Joy indicates the power and fruit of the Holy Spirit. If joy is missing then the Holy Spirit is not filling me. I’m not to seek joy any other way. That would be idolatry. And 1 John 1:9 always tells me what to do if joy is missing. Now You show me again the deep reason why joy is so vital — it is the way to display Your glory.



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