Desiring God
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
The pursuit of pleasure is not optional. It is essential. Scripture reveals that the great business of life is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. In this paradigm-shattering work, John Piper reveals that the debate between duty and delight doesn’t truly exist: Delight is our duty. Join him as he unveils stunning, life-impacting truths you saw in the Bible but never dared to believe. The message of Desiring God is that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. In this book, Piper calls this worldview “Christian Hedonism” and explains why pursuing maximum joy is essential to glorifying God. He discusses the implications of this for conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions, and suffering. R.C. Sproul says this book is a “modern manual of true spirituality.” “A soul-stirring celebration of the pleasures of knowing God… A must-read for every Christian and a feast for the spiritually hungry,” says John MacArthur.
Wait! You can get a better deal by purchasing this resource in the John Piper Collection.
The updated version of Desiring God flows from John Piper's decades of experience as a Christian teacher and leader. In college, he struggled with the idea that doing good was ruined by deriving pleasure from those good actions. In seminary, his studies challenged that notion.
Piper's book invites the reader into this journey and presents a road map for understanding what Christian Hedonism is and how to live it out to the glory of God. He covers ten essential elements of the Christian life, helping the reader understand what happiness in God looks like in the context of these different aspects of life.
The tenth chapter is new to the latest edition of Desiring God. It addresses suffering. This may seem counterintuitive in a work on happiness, but all Christians will face suffering. Piper shows how "all suffering in a Christian calling is with Christ and for Christ." This final chapter was a necessary capstone to his classic book on Christian happiness.
The reader will learn what Christian Hedonism is and how to apply it to their lives.
- Introduction: How I Became a Christian Hedonist
- Chapter - 1 - The Happiness of God: Foundation for Christian Hedonism
- Chapter - 2 - Conversion: The Creation of a Christian Hedonist
- Chapter - 3 - Worship: The Feast of Christian Hedonism
- Chapter - 4 - Love: The Labor of Christian Hedonism
- Chapter - 5 - Scripture: Kindling for Christian Hedonism
- Chapter - 6 - Prayer: The Power of Christian Hedonism
- Chapter - 7 - Money: The Currency of Christian Hedonism
- Chapter - 8 - Marriage: A Matrix for Christian Hedonism
- Chapter - 9 - Missions: The Battle Cry of Christian Hedonism
- Chapter - 10 - Suffering: The Sacrifice of Christian Hedonism
- Epilogue: Why I Have Written This Book: Seven Reasons
- Appendix 1 - The Goal of God in Redemptive History
- Appendix 2 - Is the Bible a Reliable Guide to Lasting Joy?
- Appendix 3 - Is God Less Glorious Because He Ordained That Evil Be? Jonathan Edwards on the Divine Decrees
- Appendix 4 - How Then Shall We Fight for Joy? An Outline
- Appendix 5 - Why Call It Christian Hedonism?
Top Highlights
“That God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him” (Page 10)
“Praising God, the highest calling of humanity and our eternal vocation, did not involve the renunciation, but rather the consummation of the joy I so desired. My old effort to achieve worship with no self-interest in it proved to be a contradiction in terms. God is not worshiped where He is not treasured and enjoyed. Praise is not an alternative to joy, but the expression of joy. Not to enjoy God is to dishonor Him. To say to Him that something else satisfies you more is the opposite of worship. It is sacrilege.” (Page 22)
“Love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others.” (Page 119)
“Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it.” (Page 67)
“God’s glory is the beauty of His manifold perfections.” (Page 42)
Through ten detailed chapters, John Piper's Desiring God lays out the road map and argument for why and how a Christian should become a Christian Hedonist.
At the center of this argument is the appeal to make God the uppermost of the Christian's affections. All else in the book flows out of this basic understanding. To prove this, he strives to exposit Scripture and show five convictions to be true:
1. The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.
2. We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse. Instead, we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.
3. The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, but in God.
4. The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.
5. To the extent that we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: The pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue.
Readers will go on a journey as Piper proves that Christian Hedonism is not simply a idea. It is a calling of every Christian that they may learn to enjoy God forever.
There are many books on the market about Christian living. Not only is Desiring God a modern classic, but John Piper does not shy away from potentially controversial subjects. Instead, he invites readers to see how finding their satisfaction in God will lead them to the most profound pleasure and happiness.
Reviews
22 ratings
Gene Best
6/6/2024
Peter Ryan
5/26/2020
Florian Gostner
4/27/2020
Brian Kent
8/10/2017
Stephen Gregory
7/14/2017
Bill Carroll
9/22/2015
HJ. van der Wal
5/28/2015
Matthew VandenHeuvel
5/26/2015
