I had heard of the book Desiring God and had heard of its author, John Piper, whose name is often included in lists of influential Christian men, but had never read one of his works until now. I have just finished reading Desiring God, and would like to tell you a bit of my take on it.
One of the main points the author would like to share is that we are intended to enjoy God, or find joy in God/the service of God/a life lived for the Lord (his term in Christian Hedonism). Throughout every chapter of the book, this point is brought out: in relation to different facets of life such as marriage, missions, sacrifice/suffering, prayer, etc. There is also a study guide at the back which would lend itself easily to being used in a Bible study setting.
So—my thoughts—it was long. Not just long, but loooooooong. I don’t want to diminish the message of the book, but honestly, it’s only around 300 pages long, but because of the way it’s written it seemed oh so much longer--and I had a hard time reading through it. It takes a lot of thought and focused attention to understand. I’d call it a kind of academic/scholarly book even. You cannot just read it lightly or with distractions.
The author is very thorough and I love the fact that he uses Scripture throughout to teach, not just his opinions. The prevalence of joy and rejoice and such themes throughout the Bible certainly seem to back up his teachings about God wanting us to find joy in our service of Him.
All this being said, I would give this book a high ranking for content, though maybe not so high for readability. Give it a try! God can certainly speak to you through it, bringing certain points to the forefront which He wants to teach you.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
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