Missio Dei Suburbia

God's Goal is Your Pleasure

From 'Divine Support' in The Valley of Vision

Keep me walking steadfastly towards the country
    of everlasting delights,
    that paradise-land which is my true inheritance.
Support me by the strength of heaven
    that I may never turn back,
    or desire false pleasures
        that wilt and disappear into nothing.
As I pursue my heavenly journey by thy grace
    let me be known as a man with no aim
    but that of a burning desire for thee,
    and the good and salvation
        of my fellow men.

Why is this the land of pure delight? Because there is where we come face-to-face with the God who satisfies every desire (Psalm 16:11).

Prayers for America on Election Day

John Piper

Al Mohler

Link to others in the comments below...

Sunday Rewind: Praying Persistently For 'Those People' Without Nagging God

So Sunday I preached on Genesis 18 as part of our Promise: God's Relentless Mission series that walks through the life of Abraham. Within the story of Abraham praying for 'those people' in Sodom, I think two particular things jumped out at me as I listened to people talk about the implications of Abraham's prayer for their life.

• Praying for the good of 'those people.' I thought this was both the most critical and most challenging point in the sermon. We know better than to just pray for ourselves - what's difficult is to see God calling us to pray for people in our world that we're pretty sure God should incinerate...or at least afflict them with chronic explosive diarrhea. Only the confidence and humility of the gospel can enable us to truly seek the good of our entire community, not just people like us and people who like us.
• Persistent, yes...but nagging? It's noteworthy that Abraham's prayer in 18:23-32 is both persistent and practical. I did think this point in John Piper's God is the Gospel (p. 134) gives us some helpful guiderails:

[From a note John wrote to his wife, Noel, during a particular persistent season of prayer in their life] The strong sense I have now as I woke early and could not to back to sleep was that the Lord wants us to truth him. He seemed to admonish me that my pleadings were not faith-filled. I was starting to nag. It is not good to nag God. I was not surrendering and handing the burden over to him. I was treating him the way I have sometimes treated you in pleading for something with the tone that if I don't get it I will be perpetually unhappy. That is unbelief since it elevates God's gift above God. So I was encouraged by these thoughts to 'Cast [my] burden on the Lord,' and trust the promise that 'he will sustain [me]; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.' And for our guidance I take Psalm 25:8, 'Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.' That is one of the qualifications I confidently bring to my prayers: I am a sinner.