Mostly because I cannot say it better, I offer up a few quotes from men much smarter and more in tune than I. May we ever treasure Christ, because in Him is found the fullness that we all seek.
Just as our joy is based on the promise that God is strong enough and wise enough to make all things work together for our good, so God's joy is based on that same sovereign control: He makes all things work together for His Glory. - John Piper, Desiring God
The world rings with praise; lovers loving their mistresses, readers praising their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game. ... 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; they delight is incomplete till it is expressed. - C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
We praise what we enjoy because the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in praise. If we were not allowed to speak of what we value and celebrate what we love and praise what we admire, our joy would not be full. So if God loves us enough to make our joy full, He must not only give us Himself; He must also win from us the praise of our hearts - not because He needs to shore up some weakness in Himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because He loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can be found only in knowing and praising Him, the most magnificent of all Beings. - John Piper, Desiring God
Once we had no delight in God, and Christ was just a vague historical figure. What we enjoyed was food and friendships and productivity and investments and vacations and hobbies and games and reading and shopping and sex and sports and art and TV and travel...but not God. He was an idea...but He was not a treasure of delight. Then something miraculous happened. It was like the opening of the eyes of the blind during the golden dawn...We would give anything if we might be granted to live in the presence of this glory forever and ever. And then faith - confidence that Christ has made a way for me...But before the confidence comes the craving. Before the decision comes the delight. Before trust comes the discovery of Treasure. - John Piper, Desiring God
In conversion we find the hidden Treasure of the kingdom of God. We venture all on it. And year after year in the struggles of life, we prove the value of the treasure again and again, and we discover depths of riches we had never known. And so the joy of faith grows. When Christ calls us to a new act of obedience that will cost us some temporal pleasure, we call to mind the surpassing value of following Him, and by faith in His proven worth, we forsake the worldly pleasure. The result? More joy! More faith! Deeper than before. And so we go on from joy to joy and faith to faith. - John Piper, Desiring God
