Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

What excites your soul? What stirs happiness and joy in you? On what does your mind think when everything is still and your daydreams linger? This may not seem an immediately important question, and surely not a Christian one, but that assumption would wrong. There is no deeper or more necessary question for us to ask of ourselves than, "What do I treasure?" Our answer will shape our lives. This is exactly what John Piper is getting at in Desiring God. To him, "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever." (p. 18) If we don't treasure Christ, we cannot enjoy Him and won't glorify Him. Too many Christians have sought to glorify God by refusing joy and happiness in this life in exchange for hope of joy and happiness in the afterlife. But Piper argues, like C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory that Christianity is not about asceticism (the denial of pleasure), but hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure). To Piper, the Christian life is one of Christian Hedonism: our greatest joy comes in his highest glory. This is what we are created for, what we long for, and what we naturally hope for. Our lives are meant to sing His praise because as Piper says, "we must come to see that God is love precisely because He relentlessly pursues the praises of His name in the hearts of His people." (p. 48) Listen to the words that John shares from C.S. Lewis' Reflections on the Psalms, "But the most obvious fact about praise - whether of God or any thing - strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise - lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game - praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least. I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: `Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?' The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed." What more could God give us to enjoy than Himself? "If He withholds Himself from our contemplation and companionship, no matter what else He gives us, He is not loving." (p. 48) And in receiving Him our heart leaps for joy (we call this worship). "In the end the heart longs not for any of God's good gifts, but for God Himself." (p.87) This desiring of God in affectionate adoration is true Biblical worship (Psalm 16:11; Psalm 27:4; Psalm 37:4; Psalm 42:1-2, 5-6; Psalm 63:1; Psalm 73:25-26; Psalm 130:5). Without Him, there is nothing that will stir our hearts, and without our hearts there can be no worship. "The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the feelings and emotions and affections of the heart. Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead." (p. 86) Desiring God then is the worshipful act of loving God. John Piper has given us a theological masterpiece in Desiring God. I remember reading this in college (vaguely), but I honestly didn't remember much of what I read. It seems that reading for an assignment and reading for joy are two very different things (and in a sense, that's kind of what this book is about). This book is a treasure chest of Gospel promise and eternal joy that your heart and soul will deeply appreciate. Consider this statement that John makes concerning money, "Why does God bless us with abundance? So we can have enough to live on, and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others." (p. 203) After reading this, I for one am thankful that God has blessed John as He has because the comfort and security and joy and pleasure that has been enough for John in learning to desire God has surely been an abundance for me.

Desiring God is a book devoted to helping readers find their happiness in God. The theme is that "God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him." Dr. Piper carefully builds his case for this concept and calls it Christian hedonism. The issue for the Christian is one of desire. Will one feast on the pleasures of sin or will he run to the streams that God offers and drink from his delights. Christian hedonism is really a philosophy of life that is driven by five convictions. 1) The longing to be happy is a universal experience, and it is good, not sinful. 2) We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy. Rather 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 in God alone. 4) The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in love. 5) To the extent 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. In other words, the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. Piper develops the concept of Christian hedonism by applying the principles to the subjects of conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions and suffering (Suffering has been added to the tenth anniversary edition of the book). Desiring God is filled to the rim with strengths. The writing is clear and thought-provoking. The content is not abstract and unrelated to life. Rather it hits the reader right between the eyes with the truth of God. Second, the writer comes to the table with a Reformed worldview which pervades the book [I might add that the writer rejects the Reformed emphasis on the Covenant of works]. Third, this book forces the reader to deal with matters of the heart. Forth, this book is radically God-centered. Every subject discussed comes back to the issue of the Lordship of Jesus and whether or not the reader is finding his complete satisfaction in Him. Piper has written a tremendous book. He has the heart of a pastor and the mind of a theologian, a combination difficult to find in twenty-first century pastors. Desiring God is a passionate book. The contents will not only bring the reader to tears, but will engage his thinking in ways beyond the scope of his imagination. Desiring God is a practical book. It challenges readers to re-examine cherished presuppositions and think biblically about crucial life issues. - One of the most important books written in the last 100 years!

This book by John Piper has been one of the most instrumental books in the shaping of my Christian walk. I first read this book during my junior year of college and have loved it ever since (in fact, this book was the gift that I gave to all of my groomsmen for me wedding!). I am amazed at the lack of desire that we have in our churches today for knowing God. This book taught me what it means to delight in the knowledge of God, to desire to know Him deeper and more fully, and to share with others the wonderful delights of delighting in and finding ultimate fulfillment in who God is! Multnomah publishers have come out with this revised edition 25 years after the initial publishing of the book, and it is a good revision. The content of the book is almost identical (there have been some updates here and there), but one of the most helpful things that I found in this new revised edition is the study guide at the back of the book. There is a section where it explains how to use the study guide, some help for leaders who are interested in leading some sort of small group with the book, as well as reflection and discussion questions relating to each of the ten chapters. I found this incredibly helpful and would love to lead a small group through this book sometime soon. Many people in our churches today are either scared to read theological books because they think it may be way over their head, or they simply do not like to read. With this book clocking in at over 300 pages, it instills that fear all the more. However, I think that if we can get a group of people together to read through a work such as this, encouraging and motivating one another along the way, the spiritual walks of the people in our churches would be drastically changed. I am broken by the fact that so few people care, or think it's even important, to study about God - who He is, what He has done, etc. I think that this is a book that could help change some of those feelings and motivate people to digging deeper in the knowledge of the LORD our God. I am thankful for John Piper's life and ministry and celebrate with him at the success of this book over the last quarter century. May God continue to bless the impact of this book and lead more and more people to Desire God. Thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for providing this book to me for free in exchange for this honest review as part of their Blogging for Books program. See my review at [...]

This book is not meant to intellectually sell you on Christian Hedonism. This book is meant to make you act like a Christian Hedonist! If you just know why Christian Hedonism is biblical, but you don't practice it, then what good does it do? John Piper advocates Christian Hedonism as the ultimate quest for pleasure. We all seek our own pleasure, but rather than seek pleasure by our own means, why not seek it in God? Doesn't Psalm 37:4 say "Delight yourself in Yahway?" John breaks this up into ten sections: Happiness of God - A new chapter, added to summarize the points in his other book, The Pleasures of God . John talks about how God is ultimately out for his own glory, yet he still loves us and wants the best for us. Conversion - Becoming a true Christian (God is your treasure) is essential to Christian Hedonism. Without true faith you can't really enjoy God! Worship - How do we worship God - in action or in heart (or both)? How does he take our worship? Love - Is Christian Hedonism selfish? Are we putting ourselves over others or are we loving others more when we find true pleasure in God Scripture - Do we really need the Bible for true pleasure in God? What does this look like? Prayer - How often should we pray to really find pleasure? What should our prayer be like? Money - What should our spending be like? Do we really find true joy in God when we are trusting in money? Marriage - How do you find true pleasure in God through your marriage? Does this make you selfish? Missions - How should Christian Hedonism reshape our attitude and focus towards missions? Suffering - This was without a doubt my favorite chapter! What a great way to end the book!!! The basic point of this chapter is to prove that suffering brings out true pleasure in Christ! ("The blood of the martyrs is seed" - Tertullian) Overall, I loved this book. It is extremely easy to see (and John provides ample enough Scripture to show this) how the easiest way to truly follow God from your heart is to seek pleasure in him!!! If you don't seek it in him then you will just seek it elsewhere, which is extremely dangerous. This book is worth every minute of your time! - On a side note, if you have read this book before John rewrote parts of it, I highly recommend you buy it again and re-read it. It is very obvious that he has updated it significantly since the first version (mainly because of the mass amount of footnotes that reference books that were written between now and the first edition).

John Piper is one of my favorite writers and preachers, and this may be his most important book. It lays out a central theme of his ministry – we glorify God by enjoying Him. Since we enjoy God, Piper calls this Christian Hedonism. That is a real attention grabber. If you just glance at the phrase, and have never heard of it, you might be offended, or at least put off. But Piper gives abundant Scripture quotes from all over the Bible to support the idea that we should enjoy God, we should enjoy worshipping God, we should enjoy being obedient to God. Trust me, this book is completely Biblical and orthodox, even if the “hedonism” term might lead you to think otherwise. Piper moves on to chapters on conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions, and suffering. They are all tied in to Christian Hedonism, but some more than others. With these topics, the book becomes a short systematic theology text. Piper draws on a wealth of Scripture texts, extra-Biblical authors, and experiences to make his points. You should know going in that Piper is a Calvinist and sometimes Calvinist doctrines come out, especially when discussing conversion. Piper believes in the sovereignty of God. The book is very thorough on each point. I would like for all of my friends to read this book, but I think many of them would like the book better if it was shorter on some of the points. Surprise! On the next to the last page of the book, he says he has written a condensed version of the book, titled The Dangerous Duty of Delight. I have not looked into this book, but it might be perfect for people who want a book that is thorough as DG. At the end of the book there is a study guide that a small group could use to facilitate discussion of the book.

The book is thought provoking. It proposes some perspectives that a number of people would consider outside the traditional Christian understanding of why we should and do praise God. The premise being that our happiness/joy and our praise/glorification of God are inextricably intertwined and are mutually self reinforcing. So, of the book I would say that I like it so far but have not yet read enough to recommend to others. Re the seller, I was disappointed significantly by the nearly one month delivery time.

Thank you Pastor John Piper and, more importantly, thank you Jesus for this magnum opus on the Christian's obligation to find all of his/her delight, joy and satisfaction in God. It's amazing that I, who've been a professing Christian for 26 years, have always been told that I should find all my joy and delight in God, but no one ever provided practical, day to day, useful and useable instructions on how to this, until I read this book. After reading this book, I fully understand that all Christians can live a full, happy and fulfilled life every day in God regardless of our situations or circumstances. How do I know this? I've been utilizing the principles layed out in this book to look at my prayer, study of the Bible and relationship with other Christians thru the prism of seeking my own joy in God, and thus glorifying Him and giving Him joy. The Christian life is not religion, it is a symbiotic relationship of spiritual intimacy with the true and living God!!! The Apostle Paul was full of joy always in spite of the fact that he lived an incredibly stressful life filled with persecution, danger, illness and imprisonment all for his faith in Christ. Mr. Piper excellently points out the fact that Paul should not be considered unique among believers. The same resources Paul drew on from the Lord in order live a joyful life are ready and available for us, if we would just ask God for them. The problem is, we don't ask Him for them.

This is a great book that truly lives up to its name. I would suggest that this book gets READ SLOWLY in order to really grasp the meat written in its pages. I truly believe that if one gets past the word “HEDONISM” in order to understand the spiritual reality John Piper is describing will benefit the most from this masterpiece. If approached with a humble and teachable heart; this book will transform your walk with God and draw you into a deeper experience with your faith through the reading of scripture. Please read with an honest heart. You will not regret the experience.

Absolutely Loved this book. Piper is one of the easiest authors to read. You can hear his voice as you read through each page as though he is having a conversation with you. This quote that he unpacks by CS Lewis is life changing stuff: “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.” C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

The book for bought as a Xmas present for my Son as it was recommended to him. He has not read it yet so I can’t give a full review. Arrived on time and well packaged.

I don't agree with all what has been presented by John Piper, however, most of its content are inspiring and good. It's very helpful book for meditation.

Quick delivery and well packed, brand new

Sehr gutes Buch. Piper hat mit biblischen Argumenten meine Sicht auf den heiligen Gott korrigiert und meine Beziehung wesentlich verbessert. Mein Staunen über diesen Schöpfer des Himmels und der Erde wird jeden Tag größer.