Solid Joys

I found Solid Joys a particularly helpful daily devotional, and have been using it for about half a year. Written by theologian and pastor John Piper (widely known for his book Desiring God), these “short but substantive readings aim to feed your joy in Jesus every day of the year”.  And they do indeed!

The writings are always based on bible verses, with proper exegesis applied. They are also intensely practical and more often than not, rightly discomforting. It also comes in a free app form, so if that helps you keep up with your daily devotionals whilst commuting to work, why not?

The devotional below was particularly insightful and thus cutting, so I felt compelled to share it here. I hope it speaks to you, as much as it spoke to me.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:3–5)

The problem with the church today is not that there are too many people who are passionately in love with heaven. The problem is not that professing Christians are retreating from the world, spending half their days reading Scripture and the other half singing about their pleasures in God all the while indifferent to the needs of the world.

The problem is that professing Christians are spending ten minutes reading Scripture and then half their day making money and the other half enjoying and repairing what they spend it on.

It is not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love. It is worldly-mindedness that hinders love, even when it is disguised by a religious routine on the weekend.

Where is the person whose heart is so passionately in love with the promised glory of heaven that he feels like an exile and a sojourner on the earth? Where is the person who has so tasted the beauty of the age to come that the diamonds of the world look like marbles, and the entertainment of the world is empty, and the moral causes of the world are too small because they have no view to eternity? Where is this person?

He is not in bondage to the Internet or eating or sleeping or drinking or partying or fishing or sailing or putzing around. He is a free man in a foreign land. And his one question is this: How can I maximize my enjoyment of God for all eternity while I am an exile on this earth? And his answer is always the same: by doing the labors of love.

Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love!

It is not the cords of heaven that bind the hands of love. It is the love of money and leisure and comfort and praise — these are the cords that bind the hands of love. And the power to sever these cords is Christian hope.

I say it again with all the conviction that lies within me: it is not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love on this earth. It is worldly-mindedness. And therefore the great fountain of love is the powerful, freeing confidence of Christian hope.

So I guess it was apt that recently we sang “This world is not my home” in church. Now to live in the light of that, whilst glorifying God in the places He has put us in, and the roles He has granted us.