Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Prayer: the delight of God

The reason our hope is a pleasure to God is because it shows that all our joy comes from the bounty of His grace. And the reason our prayers are a pleasure to God is because they express this God-exalting hope. It is a precious thing beyond words - especially in the hour of death - that we have a God whose nature is such that what pleases Him is not our work for Him but our need of Him....

The most wonderful thing about the Bible is that it reveals a God who satisfies His appetite for joy by answering prayers. he has no deficiency in Himself that he needs to fill up, so He gets His satisfaction by magnifying the glory of His riches by filling up the deficiencies of people who pray.

John Piper, The Pleasures of God, p.215-216 (commenting on Proverbs 15:8)

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