Thousands of books are published every year but among those thousands very few will be a remembered after a year of their publishing, and even fewer still will be remembered twenty or thirty years after its first publishing. Desiring God by Dr. John Piper is a book that has been held in high regard by many Christians for a very long time. I first read Desiring God when I was a teenager and read it again several years later. After many years of reading Desiring God I was excited when last year the Revised Edition of Desiring God came out.
Desiring God has been a paradigm shifting book for me. By that I mean that it has made a deep impact on how I live out the Christian life. Piper in this book teaches that there is no need to choose between duty and delight in the Christian life. Desiring God teaches that for followers of Jesus, delight is the duty, because Christ is most magnified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him. Piper time and time again draws his readers back to the Scripture by showing why pursuing maximum joy is essential to glorifying God. By going into the implications this has on conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions and suffering he convincingly demonstrates the integrated nature of what a Christian life looks like when Christ is most magnified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him.
Desiring God will turn your Christian life upside-down by giving you a vision of the glory of God and the beauty of Jesus Christ. I recommend you read Desiring God but be prepared to be confronted and challenged with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Title: Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
Author: John Piper
Publisher: Multnomah Books(2011)
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the Multnomah Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Dave Jenkins is happily married to Sarah Jenkins. He is a writer, editor, and speaker living in beautiful Southern Oregon. Dave is a lover of Christ, His people, the Church, and sound theology. He serves as the Executive Director of Servants of Grace Ministries, the Executive Editor of Theology for Life Magazine, the Host and Producer of Equipping You in Grace Podcast, and is a contributor to and producer of Contending for the Word. He is the author of The Word Explored: The Problem of Biblical Illiteracy and What To Do About It (House to House, 2021) and The Word Matters: Defending Biblical Authority Against the Spirit of the Age (G3 Press, 2022). You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, or read his newsletter. Dave loves to spend time with his wife, going to movies, eating at a nice restaurant, or going out for a round of golf with a good friend. He is also a voracious reader, in particular of Reformed theology, and the Puritans. You will often find him when he’s not busy with ministry reading a pile of the latest books from a wide variety of Christian publishers. Dave received his M.A.R. and M.Div through Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.
