(music) This is maybe a little bit more of an abstract question than we normally get, and it comes from two different listeners. Mark writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, I'm an analytical thinker and have in the past devoured your books. Call me a piper groupie. I find myself intellectually satisfied and yet spiritually lacking in my heart.

I believe and understand and am thrilled by what I read, but it just isn't mine. I haven't experienced it as my own. I figure I need to seek Jesus myself in prayer and meditate on the Word and not just read about it. You are certainly analytical, but you have made biblical truths your own.

Can you comment on how to move beyond unapplied analysis?" And related to this, Chris emails in to ask this, "Many times I feel I know a lot about God instead of knowing God. Pastor John, am I missing an intimacy other Christians have?" Well, let me take those together because I think, Tony, that at least they sound to me like they're very—they're coming from the same place.

And my answer is, to use the words of Chris's question, yes, you are missing an intimacy that some, and I'm saying some, other Christians have. They don't always have it. They have it now, maybe, but they may not have it tomorrow. You have something that they, some of them, don't have in your grasp of Scripture.

And the point of saying both of those, that yes, they have something you don't have, and yes, you have something they don't have, is to protect us from thinking in a kind of simplistic way about the affections of the human heart. There are so many different kinds of Christian hearts and different kinds of experiences, emotional heart experiences of the living Christ.

So we must beware of thinking in simple either/or categories. The kind of experience that we're talking about, that I think these brothers so long to experience, is a heartfelt brokenness, a heartfelt fear of God, joy or thankfulness or tenderheartedness, remorse for sin, compassion for the lost, admiration for Christ, hope in His promises.

Those are the kinds of things we're talking about when we say our heart, heartfelt affections or emotions. And the fact is, they're never constant. Not even from one hour to the next in the soul of a saint are they constant. They rise, they fall, they burn, they cool, they hover in the middle, and they dip and rise.

They're a moving target. So every one of us, with our unique capacities for emotion in Christ, have to be very careful never to say as a Christian, "I don't have those." And we should never say, "I've got all I need." No Christian has what we need, and no Christian has none.

You're not a Christian if you don't have any awakenings of affection for Jesus. There are always greater ones to be had at any moment. We live in a fallen world with fallen bodies and fallen minds and fallen hearts, and we groan, Paul says, longing for the final deliverance. And what strikes me as especially encouraging in these questions— and I would just address these brothers Mark and Chris directly— what encourages me about you is that you are really bothered by the level of affections that you have for God.

You wish you had more. You feel like second-handers. You read a book and see what others feel, and that gives some measure of satisfaction, but you feel—but they're not mine, at least not in the intensity that I seem to be reading about them in others. And I simply want to say that's very encouraging to me, because I know Christians who are cool in their affections, and it doesn't bother them at all.

They're not writing anybody for advice. They're not desperately seeking help with this. And so the very longing to have what you don't feel you have is a having, which is more precious than you may realize. So my concern here is simply to help you fight for joy, rather than to give you a momentary high that you might have right now, and then not have tomorrow and wonder what happened to you.

And the simplest strategy that I can give is to say, "Pray earnestly for these affections the way the psalmist does and the way Paul does. Incline my heart to your testimonies. Open my eyes to see wonders. Satisfy me in the morning. Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right and willing spirit.

Restore the joy of my salvation." It's amazing to me that the psalmist prays that way, because he's praying like Mark and Chris would want to pray, I think. And Paul does the same for his churches. He says to the Ephesians in chapter 1, "I remember you in my prayers, asking that the eyes of your hearts would be open so that you know the hope you've been called to, and know the riches of your inheritance, and know the power that's at work in you." And he doesn't mean know like the devil knows.

I mean, the devil knows these things and hates them. He means know like you know honey is sweet when you taste it, and you know velvet is smooth when you touch it, and you know that the new-cut grass out in the front is sweet when you smell it. That's the kind of knowing Paul is praying for here.

I do this virtually every day. I just want these brothers to know that I'm with them in the fight. I pray every day for my affections not to die and to be quickened and made lively. And the phrase that's right at the top of my prayer list is, "Hallowed be your name." And if you stop and think about the word "hallowed," "sanctified," that is, what you're praying for is, "God, help me with my whole being to set your name in a place of great sacredness, and great purity, and great love, and great honor.

Help me to see and savor the worth of your name with all my heart and soul and mind and strength." So that's right at the top of my prayer list every day, and it's a prayer from my heart. So take the Word of God praying. That's the key. Ephesians 6, what, verse 17, I think.

"Take the sword of the Spirit, praying at all times." Take the sword praying. Take the sword praying. Never take the sword by itself. Never pray by itself. Always take the Word of God and pray it into reality in your life, and then bank on one aspect of that sword, namely the promise of God.

"I will put the fear of me in your hearts, and you will not turn from me." So I would say to Mark and Chris and the hundreds of people who share this struggle, God will complete the work that He's begun in us. Yes, He will. Thank you, Pastor John.

For more on fighting for joy in God, there's a series of messages from a 2005 regional conference, which you can find at DesiringGod.org by searching for the titles "How to Fight for Joy." There you will find three sessions and one question and answer session as well. Again, those can be found online at DesiringGod.org under the title "How to Fight for Joy," all available free of charge.

I'm your host Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.