Pastor John, in light of our previous podcasts, and especially episodes 19 and 21, there's a question about whether or not we can glorify God in our desire to enjoy Him, even when we do not feel the joy. Or do I bring glory to God only when I experience the joy?

In other words, maybe this is the best way to ask the question, when you say God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him, would it be more accurate to say that God is most glorified in me when I look to be most satisfied in Him?

Does that make sense? Yeah, it totally makes sense, and the answer is no, but it's way more complicated than that. So let me back up and say yes to the first part. The first part, I think, was, can I glorify God in my desire to enjoy Him, even when I don't feel joy?

Now, the answer to that is yes. But here's the reason it doesn't contradict Christian hedonism. There are levels of worship. There are levels in our emotions of how we honor God with them. The top level is we're just all there, right? We are white-hot for God. We're free. We're unhindered.

We're rooted in the truth, and our emotions are free, and we're able to sing and obey and bless, and we're just all there, and we love Him, and we're totally serving Him. And clearly, God is honored when that's the case, and our emotions are all there, and we're enjoying Him.

Down a level where we really live in and out of that is when we lack that kind of intensity, which we do most of the time, I would say. Sorrow for the fact that we don't feel that way honors God. Sorrow and regret that I'm not there is a way of honoring God, but that sorrow is an echo of the joy, the seed of which is still in us.

In other words, we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. That taste has become temporarily dull. It's not having its effect on the tongue of our soul. We know it. The only reason we feel any regret, the only reason we desire for more is that we've tasted it, and the remnant is there in us.

And so I think when I say there needs to be, there should be joy, I mean that kind of leftover of what was there before that is enough to make us regret that it's not there, and long for it to be there, and pray that it be there, that's joy too, and that honors God too.

And then there are seasons, this would be the third level way down, is we're so numb that we scarcely have any memory. We can't even function. This is depression in its worst. And I think God is honored there if we wait for Him, and don't curse Him, and don't turn aside to idols.

If we're just waiting, because that ability to wait for Him, feeling virtually nothing, feeling numb in our soul, is rooted in something that God has done in us, and is real and authentic. So that's my yes to the first question, but my no to the last question, namely, shouldn't we revise the mantra, "God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in Him," and rather say, "God is most glorified in us when we look to be most satisfied in Him," is no.

Because I'm saying, yes, God is glorified when we look to Him to be most satisfied in Him, but no, not most satisfied. In other words, the word "most" there is not to deny what they're affirming. I'm affirming with them that looking to Him to be satisfied in Him honors Him, because we've tasted that satisfaction, and a seed of it remains in us.

But I am saying, don't ever, ever stop there. God wants us to be hot, not lukewarm. And so God is more glorified by a person who sees enough of Christ's beauty that his whole soul is engaged. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.

And therefore, to say, "God is most glorified when we look to Him to produce that kind of love," rather than experiencing that kind of love, would, I think, be an undermining of the very commandment itself. So we glorify God in sorrow, and we glorify God in waiting in the dark seasons, but God is most glorified in us when we experience wholesale mind, body, soul joy.

Yes, and I assume that that's the case because God does away with depression in heaven. If He were most glorified by our being-- hanging on by our fingernails while we're in a season of darkness, then I think heaven would be a season of darkness, and we'd all be hanging on by our fingernails in heaven because that's the way God gets most glory for eternity.

But that's not. Now, if somebody wants to really press on this and say, "All of the universe and all of history is the way God gets the most glory," namely, when the totality of everybody's experience is folded in and the tapestry is seen as a whole, then I'm going to say, "Okay, if that's what you mean, yes." But that's not what we're talking about.

We're talking about where are we all going? Where are we going so that God gets most glory? Not the totality of the tapestry, but rather where are we going? And where we're going is into an experience of perfection where God will, at that moment, be most glorified in us, and that will be a moment of total satisfaction in Him.

Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Send your questions to us via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Please include your first name and your hometown. You can find thousands of other free resources from John Piper online at desiringgod.org. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.