This quote best states how we glorify God by enjoying Him, by praising Him!
"When I first began to draw near to belief in God and even for some time after, I found a stumbling block in the demand that we should “praise” God; still more in the suggestion that God Himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue…but the most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything, strangely escaped me. I never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game…Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible…
Men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” Indeed we can’t help doing it…because praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation…Our expressions of praise are inadequate – but how if one could really and fully praise things to perfection – then indeed our delight would attain perfect development! To understand what [heaven] means we must imagine ourselves in perfect love with God – drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves…flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression – our joy no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is a separable from the brightness it sheds. The Scots Catechism says a man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But then we will know these are the same thing. To fully enjoy is to glorify – in commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him." – C. S. Lewis
3 comments:
Ahh, C.S. Lewis. You couldn't get much better... unles you were to quote Voddie Baucham, Ken Ham,or Daniel Michael. I love reading your blog, keep it up!
C.S. Lewis said that???? I thought I did! I make that mistake all the time....
Ha, ha...love it! Now you are beginning to sound like Josh! When I first met him and started hearing him talk about all the things he believed, what he wanted out of life, etc., and then I started reading John Piper, I said, Josh, he believes like you, and Josh said, no, he believes like C.S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards put together, and then I stole my stuff from him! Then again, none of us stole it from a person, it is all from God! :)
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