Are there times in the Christian life when, for whatever reason, God chooses to withhold His presence from us, and thus nullifies all hope that we would experience Godward affections? The Puritans seem to operate from this assumption. Pastor John, if this is true, if God withdraws from the Christian at times, thus making joy in God impossible, doesn't then Christian hedonism, the call to be happy in God, doesn't this plea just heap guilt on such a person?

I do believe that God lifts His hand, or another image would be covers us with darkness at times. I don't think Christian hedonism adds guilt. I think Christian hedonism names guilt. In other words, it is proper to feel bad that we're not rejoicing in the Lord. That's part of what darkness is.

We can't rejoice, and we feel bad we can't rejoice. Christian hedonism is not going to withdraw the biblical statements, "Rejoice always." It's not going to withdraw the biblical mandate to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as though, "Okay, we'll just change the Bible so you don't feel bad in this moment." Instead, what Christian hedonism does is say, "I know what you're talking about." This view of joy is not a naïve view of joy.

It's not a view that assumes we don't have seasons of horrible darkness. My favorite passage of Scripture in this regard of darkness and seasons of desertion is Micah 7, 8, and 9. I preached a sermon a few years ago in which I used the phrase "gutsy guilt." It goes like this.

This is Micah 7, 8. "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall rise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light for me." He's confessing right there, "I do sit in darkness." It's not bright right now. It's a cloud. So verse 9, "I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.

He will bring me out to the light. I shall look upon His vindication." That is one of the most magnificent, realistic statements of what it means to be a justified sinner in darkness. It's an unbelievably gutsy experience of guilt. That's why I'm resisting the statement that we shouldn't feel guilty or shouldn't add to guilt by acknowledging biblical truth.

We embrace our guilt. When I am discouraged, defeated, dark, and feel little joy, it's not going to help me to have a naive view of my own sin and say, "Oh, I'm not so guilty after all." I am guilty. Then the question is, "What do you do with your guilt?" He says, "When I fall, I shall rise.

When I sit in darkness, the Lord is still my light even though I can't see it. I'm going to bear this indignation because I've sinned against Him until," and there's this lapse of time, "He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me." What I want to say to the person in darkness, even lengthy darkness, is keep holding on to the hope that God is going to vindicate you and bring you out to the light.

The text that I have probably used most often with discouraged, dark saints, including myself, is Psalm 40. When I came to Bethlehem 32+ years ago, one of the first sermons I preached was called In the Pits with the King, based on Psalm 40, where it says, "I waited patiently for the Lord.

He heard my cry. He lifted me up out of the miry pit, out of the bog. He set my feet upon a rock. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord." I asked people when I caught them that, "How long do you think they waited for the Lord?" I waited for the Lord.

David is saying, "I was in a pit. My feet were in muck. There was darkness over my head, and God wasn't showing up." He waited. That's what I want to say, that we wait. Christian hedonists say we ought to be happy. We're not. That's bad. We acknowledge it's bad, and we're not going to despair because we are bad.

We're looking away in the darkness, looking away to Christ, and we're waiting for God's timing to restore the joy of our salvation. When he does it, then we realize, "Okay, there was a purpose for that, because now people are seeing and putting their trust in the Lord." Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.

For more on this subject, see Pastor John's book, "When the Darkness Will Not Lift." You can find it and thousands of other free resources from John Piper online at DesiringGod.org. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening. Desiring God's Timing to Restore the Joy of Our Salvation. By John Piper.