Here's a question from a pastor. "Pastor John, how did you maintain your personal awe of God throughout your three decades of ministry? Have you ever burned out? Have you ever gone through dry seasons? And if so, how did you get out of it?" I have gone through very dark and cold seasons, and I want to make sure that when I say that, people realize we're not talking about a simple two-phase Christianity, like there's really red-hot, devoted, vital Christianity, and then there's cold, dead, dark Christianity.

The fact is, there are infinite gradations in between those two extremes, and so I would say I'm in and out of those daily. It's not like, "Oh, back in '78 there was a season." It's like I get up needing to become alive, and my strategy has been the same pretty much all the way along in trying to fight this fight for joy, and that is to pray earnestly while I look at the Bible.

So those two things, my faith is set towards God's Word, because it says in 1 Samuel 3:21, "He revealed himself to Samuel through the Word of the Lord." And I want to see Jesus. I need Jesus. I don't need merely propositions. I need an encounter with the living Christ, and I believe it comes through the Word, and yet I'm staring at the Word and it's not happening, right?

So I'm staring at the Word. I don't say, "Okay, the Word doesn't work. I'll go somewhere else." I keep staring at the Word and praying my favorite acrostic, "I O U S." Incline my heart to your testimonies, O God. Open my eyes to see wonderful things. Unite my heart to fear your name.

Satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love. I O U S. That's my prayer virtually every day over the Word of God. And the paradigm in the Psalms for helping me cope with seasons of downness is Psalm 40, which says, "I waited patiently for the Lord. He heard my cry.

He lifted me up out of the desolate pit, out of the miry bog. He put my feet upon a rock and made my step secure. He put a new song in my mouth. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord." Now, he was in the pit.

It was a miry bog, and it says he was waiting. And how long was he waiting? I'm so glad it didn't say two days or a week. It left it open because you may be in that miry bog for months, but the key there is I waited patiently for the Lord.

And I think while he waited, he was crying out. All those I O U S, all those came from the Psalms. So I get help by looking at David in the pit, and I get help from all the prayers that the Psalms made, and I get mainly help from keeping my face in the book and pleading with God to reveal himself to me over and over.

And I know you don't ask these questions, Tony, in order to get me to advertise books, but I just got to say, C.J. Mahaney told me his favorite Piper book is "When I Don't Desire God," and I think that's because C.J. loves application. He loves nitty-gritty, down-to-earth, in-your-face, helpful counsel.

And that's my most practical book out of all the dozens of books I've done. If somebody's asking, "I don't desire God, and I've been in a season of not desiring God for months. What can I do?" Well, there's five minutes worth, but if you want ten hours worth, I did my dead-devil best to get down real in that book and say it.

And I noticed, too, that there are three messages that Desiring God calls "How to Fight for Joy," these conference messages. I don't even know where I gave them, but if you typed in "How to Fight for Joy," they're there. Thank you, Pastor John. You can find those 2005 regional conference messages by searching for "How to Fight for Joy," sessions one, two, and three, and you will also find a questions and answers session.

Those and thousands of other free resources from John Piper can be found online at DesiringGod.org. I'm your host, Tony Arenke. Thanks for listening. Desiring God for Joy www.desiringgod.org