GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 23 ~ ~ Philippians 4:19 ~ ~ “My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
John Piper continues in “the Pleasures of God”
“God’s Pleasure in Doing Good to All Who Hope in Him”
God delights in the welfare of his servant because it shows his greatness. “GREAT is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant.” God has overcome every obstacle that would keep him from lavishing kindness on us forever. That is what the last chapter was all about. Christ was bruised to bear the condemnation that stood like a dam between the desert valley of our lives and the trillion-ton, cool, clear, deep, freshwater reservoir of God’s goodness.
Romans 8:1
But now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:7
He carried our griefs and bore our sorrows and triumphed over death so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The watergates of the dam are opening wider and wider—up to our ability to bear the blessing of God’s glory. God is not like an insecure bully, who likes to show off his strength by putting weaker people down. God loves to show off his greatness by being an inexhaustible source of strength to build weak people up. His exuberance in delighting in the welfare of his servant is the measure of the intensity of his resources—what the Bible calls, “the riches of his glory.” in Philippians 4:19 (above).
Ps 149:4
God takes pleasure in his people. He beautifies the weak with salvation.
God is an infinitely beautiful person. If you have every loved any beauty you can begin to feel this. For all beauty in the universe is a spin-off of the original beauty in God. One of the ways God expresses his delight in this beauty is by giving it away to his people. He takes pleasure in them by adorning them or beautifying them with his own beauty. He does it partly now in wonderful works of grace called the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (listed in Galatians 5:22)
He will complete the beautification process at the resurrection when the whole creation stands up to celebrate “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Roans 8:21) and all believers “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). No joy, however great, that men and women have known in their happiest moments can compare with the joy of God in beautifying his people.
In the process of beautifying his people God rejoices to take away every pain, sorrow and misery.
“I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. (Isaiah 65:19)
For a season on the earth it was necessary that “through many tribulations we enter the kingdom” (Acts 14:22). There are good reasons for this, and they are reasons for our good. But God will rejoice when the lessons are over, the final exams are passed, and the vacation has begun.
When he sees us perfectly whole, with no tears, pain, blemish disability or defect, he will break forth into song, and our joy in the beauty of the new earth and of our new bodies of perfect holiness will be joy in the beautiful rejoicing of God.
I’ll add a few more verses of rejoicing.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness.
The pastures of the wilderness drip, And the hills encircle themselves with rejoicing.
They will be brought with joy and rejoicing; They will enter into the King’s palace.
Serve the Lord with jubilation; Come before Him with rejoicing