This small book was such a comfort to me. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him” is John Piper’s main point in this book. Dangerous Duty of Delight highlights the biblical significance of the pursuit of joy and the practical workings of seeking our full satisfaction in Christ alone.
Here are some quotes I saved and want to think on further:
Cs Lewis- “We are far too easily pleased.”
“If it is true that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, then look at what is at stake in our pursuit of joy. The glory of God is at stake! If I say that pursuing joy is not essential, I am saying that glorifying God is not essential. But if glorifying God is ultimately important, then pursuing the satisfaction that displays His glory is ultimately important.”
“I am often asked what a Christian should do if the cheerfulness of obedience is not there. It's a good question. My answer is not to simply get on with your duty because feelings don't matter. They do! My answer has three steps. First, confess the sin of joylessness. ("My heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I," Psalm 61:2.) Acknowledge the coldness of your heart. Don't say that it doesn't matter how you feel. Second, pray earnestly that God would restore the joy of obedience. ("I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart," Psalm 40:8. Third, go ahead and do the outward dimension of your duty in the hope that the doing will rekindle the delight.”
“The soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tears.”
Saint Augustine- “Command what you wish but give what you command.”
“Nothing makes God more supreme and more central than when people are utterly persuaded that nothing—not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends-is going to bring satisfaction to their aching hearts besides God. This conviction breeds people who go hard after God on Sunday morning.”
“If the focus shifts onto our giving to God, instead of His giving Himself to us, one result is that subtly it is not God who remains at the center but, instead, the quality of our giving. ‘Are we singing worthily of the Lord? Are our instrumentalists playing with quality fitting a gift to the Lord? Is the preaching a suitable offering to the Lord?’ This all sounds noble at first. But little by little the focus shifts off the utter indispensability of the Lord Himself and onto the quality of our performances. And we even start to define excellence and power in worship in terms of the technical distinction of our artistic acts. Nothing keeps God at the center of worship like the biblical conviction that the essence of worship is deep, heartfelt satisfaction in Him and the conviction that the pursuit of that satisfaction is why we are together.”
“Instead, the point is that if you are deprived of your earthly family in the service of Christ, it will be made up a hundredfold in your spiritual family, the church.”
“Yes, but what about the solitary missionaries who labor for years without being surrounded by hundreds of sisters and brothers and mothers and children in the faith? Is the promise true for them? Yes it is. Surely what Christ means is that He Himself makes up for every sacrifice. If you give up a mother's nearby affection and concern, you get it back one hundred times in the affection and concern from the ever-present Christ. If you give up the warm comradeship of a brother, you get back one hundred times the warmth and comradeship of Christ. If you give up the sense of at-homeness you had in your house, you get back one hundred times the comfort and security of knowing that your Lord owns all the houses and lands and streams and trees on earth. To prospective missionaries, Jesus says, I promise to be with you (Matthew 28:20). I will work for you and be for you so much that you will not be able to speak of having sacrificed anything.”
“Christ chose suffering as the way to create and perfect the church.”
Johnathan Edwards- “self denial destroys the very root and foundation of sorrow.”
‘We do not choose suffering simply because it is the right thing to do. But because the one who tells us to, describes it as the path to everlasting joy. “
“He beckons us into the obedience of suffering not to demonstrate the strength of our devotion to duty, nor to reveal the vigor of our moral resolve, nor to prove the heights of our tolerance for pain; but rather to manifest, in childlike faith, the infinite preciousness of His all-satisfying promises.”