Found this quote by George Mueller interesting:
“The Lord taught me that the first business I needed to attend to every day was to have my spirit happy in the Lord. My first concern shouldn’t be thinking of ways to serve and glorify the Lord, but rather, how to get my spirit into a happy state, and how to nourish my inner man.”
What do you all think? At first I was kind of taken aback-first concern shouldn’t be thinking of ways to serve and glorify? Isn’t this the purpose to which he created us? To glorify him? But then I remembered “glorify Him AND enjoy Him forever.” I’ve often heard (from my father) that the best way to glorify God is to enjoy Him forever, or “Glorify God by enjoying Him forever.”
I’d love to hear your thoughts on it…
Ruby
countrylane
eworpell
Lauren
hemuen
jessi
Heidi
Laura
lucricausa
mengmom
prudenceblue
virginiasusan
keeping house 
8 comments
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March 1, 2010 at 2:54 am
mengmom
I was a little shocked by this comment too when I first read through it, but it does make sense. We can’t expect to glorify God until we are enjoying Him. I don’t think that God wants us to try to glorify Him out of a sense of mere duty or fear, but to have our hearts set upon Him and then out of a deep love for Him to desire to bring glory to His name. It’s kind of like a wife who honors her husband out of a sense of duty and not love. They won’t grow much in their relationship that way. But, if a wife truly loves her husband and enjoys being his wife, she won’t be able to help showing her enjoyment in her actions. Showing God that we enjoy Him brings Glory to Him.
March 1, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Heidi
Elizabeth, I read this statement recently by Ruby’s pastor (who has been a kind friend to us as well), which I think makes an important distinction about which of these things (glorifying/enjoying) is the *root* and which the *fruit* of the other:
‘In reformed theology “enjoyment” was used in its Latinised sense of “fruition,” “enjoying possession of.” As such the use of “enjoyment” was always seen as a fruit of glorifying God. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever” was interpreted to mean that the enjoyment of God follows the glorifying of God. The Hedonist alternative — man’s chief end is to glorify God by enjoying Him for ever — makes the enjoyment of God the means of glorifying Him. The two are completely different interpretations of the nature of Christian joy. One makes joy the fruit and the other the root of the Christian life.’
I thought that was very helpful, because as joy was set before Christ and He had to endure the cross for it, it is set before — not always beside — us and is not always in equal measure our experience here; yet we are always called upon to glorify God (and as Denise says, to do so from our hearts — because our hearts are set upon His glory). I think as we do, we will enter more and more fully into the ‘enjoyment’ of Him. However it’s very good to know that even in those times where our emotions are dead and our experience is not of joy, that Christ has been there before us (Psalm 88, knowing the Psalms are his own prayers as the head of his people makes them mean so much more to me) and that we are walking in His footsteps, and can still bring glory to God and know that joy is set before us as we endure.
March 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Heidi
(Just a quick PS to this: it’s very fascinating to me that the Larger Catechism lists ‘quietness of mind’ and ‘cheerfulness of spirit’ as duties required by the sixth commandment. But I think that has more to do with things we can control like restraining our thoughts when they doubt God’s Word, and with the way we interact with others — the experience of happiness itself is not always given us in the middle of severe trials. It also makes me incredibly grateful that Christ died for me! I can think of more times than I can count just this morning where I have failed in such spiritually ‘quiet’ good cheer!)
March 2, 2010 at 2:48 am
py3ak
If you’ll excuse the intrusion of a non-housewife, while I don’t know exactly what Muller meant, I think his words can be interpreted in a way that is certainly true and helpful.
Matthew Henry says:
Richard Sibbes says:
As it is only the grace of God, objectively, that enables us to perform any good work, so it is the grace of God, subjectively perceived, that motivates and encourages us to good work. Understanding Muller in that light, I think he is quite right. In order to love and obey God, you ought to perceive that God is loveable, as Cocceius remarks:
March 5, 2010 at 12:34 am
virginiasusan
My first concern shouldn’t be thinking of ways to serve and glorify the Lord, but rather, how to get my spirit into a happy state, and how to nourish my inner man.”
When I read that comment by Mueller, it reminded me of John Piper’s book Desiring God. There is something about that quote and Piper’s book that bothers me, but I’m not sure I can put my finger on it. Something seems out of balance about it to me. I think our first concern should be to glorify the Lord.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.1 –Corinthians 10:31
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! –Psalm 103:1
Francis Shaeffer said that we should strive to live in a state of soul where we have a quietness in our souls before the Lord. Having a thankful heart means we are not coveting, being content with what the Lord sees fit to bless us with. I think the word happy is what bothers me about Mueller’s quote. Maybe I’m being overly picky here, but happiness depends on our circumstances, but Joy doesn’t. Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit and is something God commands us to have. We can rejoice in the Lord in spite of our circumstances.
Our happiness should not be our main focus. Our first concern should be seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness. Reuben is right that we cannot have this peace with God without assurance of His goodness to us trusting that He works all things for our good.
March 5, 2010 at 8:02 pm
mengmom
I think Mueller’s thoughts would have been better expressed like this, “The first thing I must do in the morning when I arise is to make sure that I am right with God. Is there any unconfessed or unrepented of sin standing between me and my God? Once I am right with God, I am ready to begin serving the Lord in full enjoyment of Him and loving Him because He first loved me and, subsequently awakened my mind and heart to my need of Him in all that I do. Then I can be nothing but happy as I serve my God and seek to glorify Him throughout the day.”
We can’t rightly glorify God unless we are in communion with Him and we can’t help but be happy when we are in communion with Him. The only thing that can really keep us from enjoying God as we should is our own inclination to sin and stray away.
March 6, 2010 at 12:41 am
virginiasusan
I can say a hearty AMEN to that! Thanks, Denise.
March 6, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Heidi
Susan, I think my uneasiness about the quote was probably similar to yours and Denise, I heartily agree with that, too. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, ‘My only comfort in life and death is that body and soul I belong to my faithful Saviour . . .’. I think we should daily make a priority of applying ‘our only comfort’ to our hearts.