Finding Joy

Ran across this great quote in the midst of sermon prep last week:

“If our joy is going to reflect the glory of God, then it must flow from true knowledge of how God is glorious.  If we are going to enjoy God duly, we must know him truly.  How can our joy reflect the worth of God if it is not rooted in truth about God? If you say, “My joy is in the journey toward knowing, not the arrival,” you make an idol out of the journey and you turn heaven into a disappointment. Jesus is not honored most by the exploration of various Christologies, any more than your wife would be honored by your indecision concerning her character.  Jesus is honored by our knowing and treasuring him for who he really is.

He is a real person.  A fact.  A fixed, unchanging reality in the universe, independent of our feelings.  Our feelings about him do not make him what he is.  Our feelings about him reflect the value of what we think he has. And if our knowledge of him is wrong, to that degree our enjoyment of him will be no honor to the real Jesus.  Our joy displays his glory when it’s a reflex of seeing him for who he really is.”

~ John Piper, “The Supremacy of Christ and Joy in a Postmodern World”