Believe, Trust, Depend & Obey

John Piper's famous saying: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." Well said!

Perhaps we would be more satisfied in Him if we would believe Him, trust Him, depend on Him and obey Him. As for believing God, it seems to me that although we say we believe Him, our belief is qualified or parceled out and filtered through a grid of our own mental and experiential processes. That is, if the promise seems realistic and makes sense, i.e., not too outlandish, then we believe it. As R. C. Sproul Jr. says in his book "Believing God," we have a little simultaneous translator sitting on our shoulder when we read God's Word, and that "translator" says "oh, God couldn't really mean what you think He's saying! We may secretly think that promise is a bit like the used car salesman telling you that the luxury sports car you're considering buying was only driven by a little old lady from Pasadena, when she drove to church." You shake your head wistfully and say "I wish that were true, but it can't be. It promises too much." So, you qualify the promise and it ends up emasculating what God intended to say to you. Example: God loves us. We wriggle out of that one by saying "nothing more than that He forgives us, that He is gracious to us. . . . [God's] love isn't exactly like our love. But this doesn't diminish the promise; rather, it amplifies it." We theorize that because we are filled with the Spirit of Christ, it is really only Jesus IN US whom God loves. But we are UNITED with Christ. "we all, if we are in Christ, are so loved that we have been adopted into the very family of God." When appear before God in Heaven, he will not just "look over His glasses at you, shuffle a few papers, bang His celestial gavel and say 'Not Guilty. Next'." He will pull up the hems of His robe as He sees you from afar off, and RUN TO MEET YOU, embrace you, and call for the fattened calf to be killed and prepared for you, for a banquet in celebration of your return to the Family. (See, Believing God, R. C. Sproul, Chapter 2 "Our Heavenly Father Loves Us."

As believing God pleases Him, so does trusting. He designed us to trust Him, depend on Him, and love Him back. Then we will obey from the bottom of our hearts, depending on Him to supply what we need according to His riches, trusting Him to bring us safely to His heavenly Kingdom. When He comes through on His promise, as He most surely will, we will be satisfied in Him, and He will be glorified.