God Is Most Glorified in Me When I Am Most Satisfied in Him

How can I obtain or recover a joy in Christ that is so deep and so strong that it will free me from bondage to Western comforts and security, and will impel me into sacrifices of mercy and missions, and will sustain me in the face of martyrdom?

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'All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.' (2 Tim. 3:12)

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'Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.' (1 Pet. 4:12)

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'We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.' (Rom. 5:3)

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'Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.' (Jas. 1:2-3)

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'For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross.' (Heb. 12:2)

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This will happen when Christians don't just say that Christ is valuable, or sing that Christ is valuable, but truly experience in their hearts the unsurpassed worth of Jesus with joy. Christ will be glorified in the world when Christians are so satisfied in him that they let goods and kindred go and lay down their lives for others in mercy, missions, and, if necessary, martyrdom. He will be magnified most among the nations when, at the moment Christians lose everything on earth, they say, 'To live is Christ, and to die is gain' (Phil. 1:21).

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Excerpt from John PIPER's When I Don't Desire God, How to Fight for Joy

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O God, you are my God;

earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you;

as in a dry and weary land

where there is no water.

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PSALM 63:1