enjoying God (10) what if I'm depressed?

In the mid 90's, I spent almost 3 years battling ongoing fear, anxiety, confusion, panic and depression, all fueled by this overwhelming and constant sense that life was hopeless. I was tired all the time, but couldn't sleep. Life went from a grey to a dark black. I thought about death for a period of 3 months almost every day, and I had no idea when it would end. Maybe you've never experienced something like what I went through. But all of us have experienced something that can be called depression, or at least feels like depression. We lose our appetite. We can't sleep. We feel tired all the time. We want to sleep all the time. We have constant feelings of guilt. We feel worthless. We think about death. For some, depression is an inconvenience. For others, it is a life-dominating numbness that won't go away.*

Depression is caused by many things: personality, brain chemistry, childhood experiences, Satan's attacks, exhaustion, illness, anxiety. But depression is never just physical or emotional. It impacts us as spiritual beings. It affects our relationship with God, our faith, our ability to seek God. It can destroy our joy.

I've never been severely depressed. I've experienced some periods of despondancy, and post-natal depression, the kind which plunges you into constant drabness and frequent tears, but doesn't require medicine or counselling. I say this so you'll know I'm no expert.

What I say here is from books I've read, talks I've heard, my studies in the Puritans (who excelled in unravelling the physical and spiritual causes of "melancholy"), conversations with friends who suffer from anxiety or depression, or who have supported others who are depressed, and the Bible, especially the Psalms.

We'll talk about three things: strategies for fighting for joy in God when you're depressed; suggestions for supporting others through depression; and resources on depression and the fight for joy. Please add your own suggestions to the comments.

Fighting for joy when you're depressed.
1. Cry out to God, honestly tell him your feelings of abandonment, bewilderment, or anger, and wait patiently for him to restore your joy (Ps. 41:1; 51:12).
2. Remember that God holds onto you even when you can’t hold onto him (Jn. 10:28).
3. Answer Satan’s accusations - for example, that a real Christian wouldn't feel this way - with the gospel.
4. Confess any unrepentant sin, especially unbelieving patterns of thought, like bitterness or despair. These may be present even if the original source of the depression is physical.
5. Talk to yourself, instead of allowing yourself to talk to you. Don't let yourself get away with despairing patterns of thinking. Exhort yourself to hope in God.
6. Replace unhelpful thoughts with helpful ones (Col. 3:2; Phil. 4:8; Heb. 12:3). Memorise the words and promises of God, and speak them to yourself. Think about what God has done, is doing, will do (Psalm 102). Study the Bible or read about God, even when it’s hard work.
7. Praise and thank God verbally even when you don’t feel it.
8. Read, learn and sing psalms and songs which express discouragement (see hymns below, also Psalm 42-3, 88, 102, etc).
9. Grit your teeth and do your tasks, one step at a time: get dressed, wipe the bench, write a paragraph of an essay.
10. Depression can be nature's warning sign of over-work, unhelpful patterns of life, or ungodly thinking patterns. It may be time to stop and prayerfully re-assess these things.
11. Shift your gaze outwards. Pray for others. Share the gospel with others. Serve others at cost to yourself.
12. Try to eat well, and get enough exercise and rest.
13. Get outside into God’s world, breathe some fresh air.
14. Find a Christian friend who will stand by you, and speak the words you can’t speak to yourself. I learnt to call a Christian friend as soon as I was feeling down.
15. If depression is severe, counselling may be helpful to give you practical strategies for dealing with depression, and medication may dull the edges so you can deal with the root issues. See your doctor.

Supporting someone who is depressed
1. Love them. Your love might be the only way they are able to experience God's love right now.
2. Don't give up on them. Persevere even when it's hard, and they don't seem to change.
3. Sit with them. You may not be able to do much, and they may not want to talk, but it is comforting for them to know you are there.
4. Listen. Allow them to express anger, bewilderment, despair, doubt, and sadness, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Don't feel like you have to "fix" everything.
5. Read the Bible to them. Pray with them. Speak God's promises, gospel and words to them, when they can't speak them to themselves.
6. You may need to help them take some of the steps above. For example, don't say "Do you want to go for a walk?", but be gently forceful: "Let's go for a walk together!"
7. Give practical help. As with grief, don't ask "What can I do to help?", just give it: make a meal, clean the house, care for their children.
8. They may not feel able to pick up the phone and call you, even if they need to. Make a regular time to call and visit.
9. Give them structure. A regular weekly visit will help them to keep going until the next one.
10. Set clear boundaries. Don't allow them to become unhelpfully dependent on you. You may need to be available at odd times and in odd places, but you may also need to set limits on times and lengths of conversations.

Resources
Hymns to learn and sing:
Give to the winds thy fears
God moves in a mysterous way
'Twixt gleams of joy and clouds of doubt

For further reading:
John Piper When the Darkness Will Not Lift, which is the last chapter in When I Don't Desire God
Edward Welch Depression: A Stubborn Darkness;
and Blame it on the Brain?;
and his booklet Depression: The Way Up When You Are Down.

Talks to listen to:
Bob Kauflin The Depressed (the quote at the top is from this talk)
John Piper Battling the Unbelief of Despondency;
and Spiritual Depression in the Psalms;
and his biographies of people who suffered from severe depression: Charles Spurgeon, William Cowper, David Brainerd

* Quote is from Bob Kauflin The Depressed. My first 15 suggestions owe much to Piper's 15 suggestions in the fight for joy: How Shall We Fight for Joy. Piper explains and expands on these steps in this talk: How to fight for joy, Session 3. Thank you Heather for many of my second 10 suggestions.

images are from stock.xchng

enjoying God (9) how can I fight for joy?

Have you ever thought of joy as a battle?

Joy is not something which slips easily into the heart. In this fallen world, with all its shame, sorrow and suffering, joy is something we must fight for with all our strength.

Many things attack our joy. We can't change these things, but we can change how we respond to them. Here's a list I gathered from Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Spiritual Depression:

- we can't change our personality,
but we must guard against our weaknesses;
- we may wake in a bad mood,
but we don't have to let it dominate us;
- we can't change a tendency to depression,
but we can choose not to give in to despair;
- we should grieve for those who die,
but we shouldn't let grief permanently overwhelm us;
- we may feel the heavy weight of guilt,
but we can remind ourselves of Jesus' death;
- we can't always change our circumstances,
but we can choose how to respond to them;
- we may feel like God is absent,
but we can remember that he is always with us in Christ;
- we can't avoid Satan's whispered temptations,
but we can decide to listen to God instead;
- we can't make ourselves happy,
but we can choose to rejoice in God.

Feelings aren't under our direct control. We can't change how we feel, but we can change what we believe, how we think, and how we act and speak, and these things will shape our emotions. Here's some practical suggestions:

1. Beliefs.
Next time you're angry, jealous, or discouraged, think about the beliefs shaping how you feel. Emotions are often a good guide to our hearts. Perhaps we're doubting God's love, or failing to trust in his goodness. Repent, pray for help, read the Bible, hold to God's promises: these change our beliefs, and shape our feelings.

2. Thoughts.
There's not much point in pushing a thought away, unless we replace it with something better. We're told to "set our minds on things above" (Col. 3:2). I memorise Bible passages, and repeat them when unhelpful thoughts pop into my head: very effective in battling impure, anxious and despairing thoughts.

3. Words and actions.
We may feel angry, but we can speak and act with kindness. We may feel miserable, but we can thank God. We may feel depressed, but we can do the next small task in front of us. It's surprising the effect this can have on our emotions.

4. Body.
We're embodied creatures, and our bodies have a huge impact on how we feel. If we're irritable, miserable, or discouraged, a look at our eating, exercise and sleeping habits during the last few hours or days may tell us why. We may need to make some changes for the sake of our godliness and joy.

I haven't even mentioned one of the most vital and neglected weapon in our battle for joy: preaching to ourselves. We mustn't let ourselves get away with untrue, discouraged thinking. We must learn to speak to ourselves of God's promises, words and salvation, and exhort ourselves to believe and rejoice.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this is the key to battling discouragement: "We must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ‘ourselves’ to talk to us!"* Read the Psalms, and echo their words: "Praise the LORD, O my soul!" "Why are your downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God!" "Be at rest, O my soul!" (Ps. 113:1; 42:5; 116:7)

Why don't you pick up your Bible, and read Psalm 42-43? Perhaps you could choose this for your Bible reading tomorrow. Write a list of the ways the Psalmist fights for joy (don't all women love lists?). You'll discover many wonderful ways to fight for joy.

* You'll find the rest of the quote here: Christian self-talk.

images are from stock.xchng

enjoying God (8) why don't I feel joy in God?

Sometimes Christians give the impression that to be a Christian, you have to be happy. If you're miserable, maybe there's something lacking in your faith, or you're not really a Christian.

It won't be long before experience of suffering, sorrow, or discouragement, brings that kind of faith crashing down.

There will be times in every Christian's life when we wonder if we will ever feel joy again. But what should we make of these times? Aren't we supposed to have joy in God? Can you be a Christian without joy?

There are a few things to remember here. First, desire and delight are two sides of the same coin. Sometimes we feel delight, a positive experience of joy. Sometimes all we feel is desire, longing for God. But both show how highly we value God, how we believe he alone can satisfy the desires of our soul.

Second, joy may seem to be absent, even when its seed remains in our hearts. We know the seed is there, because we're unhappy about our lack of joy. We're uncomfortable. We feel something is missing. If we didn't care about God, our lack of joy in God wouldn't bother us. In the depths of that sorrow is the seed of joy.

And most importantly: whatever our feelings of God's absence, the fact is that he is always with us, if we trust in Jesus. We're righteous in God's sight, united with Christ, and his Spirit lives in us (Rom. 3:22; 6:5; 8:9-11). We don't move into, or out of, God's presence depending on our feelings. The foundation for joy is always there, even when feelings of joy are absent.

But is it appropriate for Christians to be unhappy? Doesn't Paul say "rejoice in the Lord always", and "be joyful always" (Phil. 4:4, 1 Thess. 5:16)? Are unhappy Christians worse Christians, or disobedient Christians?

Christians should be unhappy, at times, in this fallen world. It's appropriate for Christians to grieve. It's appropriate for Christians to feel sorrow. A Christian who doesn't feel grief and sorrow in the face of death and suffering lacks something. Christians shouldn't be immune to what is happening around them.

But we can be unhappy and joyful at the same time. Paul describes himself as "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (2 Cor. 6:10). Peter says the people he is writing to "greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials" (1 Pet. 1:6). They don't just suffer, they "sorrow" and "grieve" - yet they also rejoice.

For joy and happiness aren't the same thing. It's possible to feel a deep sense of joy in God, even when we grieve or suffer terribly. Sometimes our joy in God is more intense when the things of this world are stripped away. Perhaps you have known this: the determination to trust and praise God in the face of loss, the sweet joy of suffering with Christ in the cause of the gospel.

Yet there will be times when joy seems a million miles away. In the first moments, days, or weeks, of devastating loss, it may be anguish, bewilderment, and even anger, which we express with honesty to God. And many great saints - Spurgeon, Cowper, Brainerd - suffered from severe depression.

In the day of sorrow, sometimes all we can do is cry out to God, hold on to his promises, plead with our souls, pray, and wait.

Futher reading: many of these ideas are taken from John Piper's When I Don't Desire God, and from chapter 16, on trials, in Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Spiritual Depression.

images are from stock.xchng

enjoying God (7) how can I know my joy is real?

Surely you can fake joy! How can I know the joy I feel is real?

Here's a few safeguards:

1. True joy is joy in the gospel.
If we trust in Jesus' death, and live for him, we can be 100% certain of living joyfully with God for all eternity (see 2W2L). Now there's good reason for joy!

Lots of religions promise joy in God. But Jesus doesn't give us the option of looking elsewhere. He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6).

2. True joy is joy in God's truth in the Bible.
In my experience, there's nothing to compare with the joy of getting to know God in his Word. "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Ps. 119:103).

We don't find God by emptying our minds and meeting God in the silence. Yes, God is beyond our understanding, and there will be times when this may leave us wordless. But joy in God begins with God's revealed truth about himself.

3. True joy is joy in God and his glory.
When I was a teenager, my Christian friend and I used to compare our "experiences" of God when we prayed. Until one day I realised it wasn't an experience of joy I was seeking: it was God himself.

In one sense, we don't seek joy at all. We seek Jesus, and in him we find our highest joy, for he is the desire and delight of all believers. We gladly become nothing, that he may be all in all.

4. True joy is joy in sacrificial obedience.
Jesus calls us to give up all we value to follow him. This is a sacrifice we delight to make, for in Jesus we have found a treasure beyond compare (Phil. 3:8).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, "Seek for happiness and you will never find it, seek righteousness and you will discover you are happy – it will be there without your knowing it, without your seeking it" (Matt. 5:6).

5. True joy is joy in suffering.
The health and wealth gospel promises joy, but it can't cope with sorrow. Only a joy robust enough to respond to suffering will last a lifetime. We follow Jesus, who "for the joy set before him endured the cross" (Heb. 12:2).

John Piper, the great teacher on joy, says his aim is not to soften cushions, but to sustain sacrifice: "The joy I write to awaken is the sustaining strength of mercy, missions, and martyrdom". Amen.

Quote is from John Piper's When I Don't Desire God p.19; images are from stock.xchng.

enjoying God (6) do I really have to feel it?

"Why do you keep going on and on about joy?", I hear you ask. "Just how important are feelings anyway?"

Faith isn't a feeling. When I fly in an aeroplane, I'm putting my faith in the pilot, but I don't feel anything about him one way or the other. Do I?

Obedience isn't a feeling. The whole point of obedience is that I obey God however I feel. Don't I?

Well, yes and no. Feelings come and go. They're not particularly reliable. When I put my faith in Christ, I may not feel anything much. But it's hard to imagine a drowning man grabbing the hand of his rescuer without joy! Peter assumes faith brings joy "that is inexpressible and full of glory" (1 Pet. 1:8).

And there will be times when I obey without joy. Times when, feeling nothing, I pray, love, or serve. But obedience isn't better when it's done through gritted teeth. In some ways, I honour God more when I obey with joy because I love to bring him glory.

It's a bit like marriage. Marriage is a fact, not a feeling, and I stay married however I feel about it. I can choose to love my husband even when I don't feel loving. But a healthy marriage will include feelings. I may tell my husband "I love him" from a sense of duty. But my husband is more honoured if I say it not just from duty, but because I really feel he is precious to me.

If I'm not feeling anything about God - even though he sent his only Son to die for me! - there's something wrong. This "wrongness" may be out of my control (illness, depression, mood). But more often than not, it's the result of unbelief, patterns of disobedience, or choices I've made.

Maybe I've cherished my moods, until I'm permanently stuck in anxiety, bitterness or despair. Maybe I've been unwise about caring for my body, and lack of sleep and exercise have plunged me into discouragement. Maybe I've neglected the Bible, prayer, or obedience, so it's no wonder I no longer feel joy in God.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who insisted truth mattered more than emotion, still saw feelings as essential to true Christianity: “If you and I have never been moved by our feelings, well, we had better examine the foundations again.” J.I.Packer described the Christian life as like a 3-legged stool: doctrine, practice, and experience. If you lack one, the stool won't support your weight very well.

Feelings come from faith, not faith from feelings. We begin with truth, not with feelings (Rom. 12:1-2). On their own, feelings don't tell us much (2 Cor. 7:10). They're not accurate indicators of the health of our relationship with God. Their intensity and expression depend on personality, health, upbringing, and a host of other factors.

But feelings will generally accompany a healthy and lively faith.

For how can we receive such a great salvation without joy? How can we see God send his own Son to die for us without tears in our eyes? How can we not sing to such a God with hearts overflowing with thanks and praise?

Martyn Lloyd-Jones quote is from Spiritual Depression, p.110; J.I.Packer comment is from Rediscovering Holiness, p.61; images are from stock.xchng.

enjoying God (5) is joy a command or a gift?

It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can. (C.S.Lewis)

Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is (C.S.Lewis)

Well, which is it? Is joy a command or a gift?

Command?
How can you possibly command someone to be happy? It would be wonderful if our emotions were under our control: "Stop being sad! Go on, be happy right now!" Certainly, you wouldn't say to a discouraged friend, "Snap out of it. Time to be happy."

But God clearly commands us to be joyful, as if it's something we can choose:

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:5)
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil. 4:4)
Be joyful always. (1 Thess. 5:16)

Gift?
How wonderful if you could give joy as a gift! If you could say to your discouraged friend, "Here's a nice parcel of joy, just for you", and watch them open it. If you could keep a pot of happiness on your shelf, and open it whenever you felt the need.

Joy is God's gift to us. In the midst of severe suffering, the Thessalonians received salvation with "the joy given by the Holy Spirit". (1 Thess. 1:6). And David, crushed by guilt, cries out to God to "restore to me the joy of your salvation" (Psalm 51:12).

How is this possible? Is the Bible trying to have it both ways? How can joy be both a command and a gift?

Command and gift?
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit: but we are to "keep in step" with the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-25). How do these things go together?

Years ago I was trying to puzzle out the problem of our responsibility and God's sovereignty. I came to love these two verses so much, that they were among the first I memorised:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Phil. 2:12-13)

We work out our salvation - but why? Because God works in us to "will and to act according to his good purpose". We can't even want to obey God unless he gives us a new will. We can't obey unless he helps us to obey. We work hard, confident that God is at work in us.

Command and gift
Every part of the pursuit of joy is from God. He makes us want to pursue joy in him. He enables us to pursue joy. And if the battle for joy is a hard, back-breaking fight, then he is the one who fights in us and through us. We fight with every ounce of strength that is in us. But we fight with his strength.

We fight against discouragement, doubt, apathy, anxiety, all the different faces of unbelief. We fight to find satisfaction in God, rather than in earthly things. We fight with the weapons God has given us: his Word, prayer, faith, obedience. We can't turn on joy like a tap, but we can create the conditions in which joy will flourish. We fight for joy.

Having fought for joy, feelings of joy are not in our command. We may do everything we can, and joy may still seem to be absent. For in the end, joy is a gift from God. The day of joy is in God's hands.

We fight, and we wait.

image of Moses by Mickelodeon at Flickr; other images from stock.xchng

enjoying God (4) how much joy can I have now?

It's an odd in-between time we live in.

When Jesus died on the cross, he dealt the death-blow to sorrow, sin and Satan. But we wait for the day when Jesus' victory is complete, and sorrow, sin and Satan are no more.

This has huge implications for our experience of joy during this life.

The word enjoyment can be used in two ways: to possess or have a right to something, or to feel delight in something.* In the first sense, our enjoyment of God is already complete. In the second sense, it won't be complete until heaven.

We already enjoy, or possess, "every spiritual blessing in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). We're as intimate with God as we will ever be. We're at peace with God. We're righteous in his sight. We can walk straight into God's presence. Heaven is our country. (Rom. 5:1-11; 8; Eph. 1:3-14; 2:6-7; Hebrews 10:19-23)

We don't have to jump through any spiritual hoops to union with Christ. There's no "first class" in the Christian life, no special kind of Christian with more significant experiences of God. We can’t “come into God’s presence”, “draw near to God”, or “get closer to God” - we're already there.

Enjoyment of God is already ours.

But we don't always feel delight, for we wait for fullness of joy. Joy during this life is interrupted and imperfect. At times, we may feel no conscious enjoyment of God at all. Joy is interrupted by depression, doubt, and discouragement. It's disturbed by sin, sickness, and sorrow.

We look forward to the day when we will see God face to face. On that day, we will finally be like him, for we will see him as he is. We will stand with thousands upon thousands before his throne, praising him. He will wipe every tear from our eyes. Joy will be our all.

We shouldn't expect uninterrupted enjoyment of God now, but we long and look forward to it. We taste its first fruits. Even now we "rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory" (1 Pet. 1:8).

Joy is ours, and joy yet to come.

*See definition of enjoyment in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language

Image is from stock.xchng.

enjoying God (3) is it ok to seek happiness?

Is it ok to want to be happy? Doesn't everyone want to be happy? Blaise Pascal said:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. (Pascal’s Pensees)

It's no different for Christians. The Bible is unembarrassed in its appeal to our desire for happiness: it warns us of everlasting sorrow if we reject Jesus, and attracts us with the promise of everlasting happiness.

Like everyone else, Christians seek happiness. But unlike everyone else, we're convinced that we will only find true happiness in Jesus. Becoming a Christian is an act of joy (Acts 16:34; 1 Pet. 1:8):

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. (Matt 13:44-46)

This is no stoic refusal of happiness! This man isn't dragging his feet, reluctantly giving up the things he loves. Here's a guy so delighted to have found a treasure without price, that in his joy, he runs as fast as he can to sell all he owns so that he can buy it.

People don't become Christians just because they're convinced of the truth of Christianity, or the goodness of the Christian life. They are captured by the joy of knowing Christ. They know that only God can satisfy the deepest desires of the human soul.

So is it right to seek happiness? Yes, if we seek it in God. The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism goes like this:

Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

We don't seek happiness as an end in itself, a certain set of emotions, or an empty experience. If that were the case, we might as well seek happiness in alcohol, or a sunset, or our favourite food. In the end, it's not happiness we seek, but God and his glory. And in glorifying him, we find our deepest joy.

Pursuing joy in God is no easy thing. It involves service, suffering, and sacrifice. It will cost all that we have. But paradoxically, in giving up all other joys to follow Jesus, we find joy beyond price and without measure.

enjoying God (2) how God feels about you

It was an unlikely moment for a spiritual revelation.

I was in my mid-twenties, sitting at an oak desk, pencil in hand, heater at my feet, ploughing through John Owen's Communion with God for my PhD.

John Owen was one of the most famous Puritan writers and teachers - he was chaplain to Oliver Cromwell and preacher to his armies - but he's not exactly known for his scintillating writing style. Words like "difficult", "dry", and "dense" spring to mind.

I had 13 thick volumes of his collected works to get through, plus another 6 volumes of his commentary on Hebrews (I never did read that!), and it was slow, painstaking work.

But today I was becoming increasingly excited about what I was reading - the wonders of communion with God - when a Bible verse upped and hit me in the face:

The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

Rejoice? With singing? I'd never read about a God like that before. Here's what John Owen had to say:

His heart is glad in us, without sorrow. And every day while we live is his wedding-day…The thoughts of communion with the saints were the joy of his heart from eternity. (p.25 of vol.2 of the Works of John Owen)

Huh? You mean God doesn't love me a little reluctantly? After all, he has to love me, now that Jesus has died for me. And I know my life's a bit of a mess. I keep trying to do what he wants, but failing. I know he's patient, and forgiving, but surely he has to work at it? Surely there are days he gets fed-up with me, and wants out?

Maybe that verse is a one-off? But no, here it is again:

The LORD will take delight in you ... as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:4-5)

And again, and again, and again (Deut. 7:6-8; Psalm 35:27, 149:4; Proverbs 11:20, 12:22; Isaiah 5:7,62:4-5; 65:17-9; Jeremiah 31:20, 32:41).

God rejoices in his people. A joy so profound, it can only be compared to the delight of a bridegroom in his beautiful bride on their wedding night. A joy so exuberant, it can only be expressed through singing, shouting, and dancing. A joy so boundless, that we will swim in the ocean of his delight for all eternity, and never come to the end of it.

enjoying God (1) how God feels about being God

Last term I told you about our Sunday school lessons on the fruit of the Spirit. This term, week by week, I'd like to tell you about a seminar I led recently on enjoyment of God. Here's the first in the series, on how God feels about being God.

Have you ever thought about what life was like for God before he made the angels, human beings, or the universe? Was God lonely? Did he create us because he needed someone to love or glorify him?

No! Father and Son were together forever, delighting in each other with the joy of the Spirit.

Many theologians have pictured the Trinity like this. The Son is the perfect image of God, God's joy-filled view of his own excellencies given form. Father and Son rejoice in each other, and delight to bring each other glory. The Spirit is the love and joy which flow between them.

Which is good news for us. For our joy is the overflow of his. We have joy only because he is a God of joy. All joy, all delight, flow from the happy God.

Here's my favourite word-picture of the joy between Father and Son on the day the "morning stars sang together, and all the angels shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). "Wisdom", or God's Son (1 Cor. 1:24), speaks:

The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works,
before his deeds of old;
I was appointed from eternity,
from the beginning, before the world began.
When there were no oceans, I was given birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water;
before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
before he made the earth or its fields
or any of the dust of the world.
I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.
Proverbs 8:22-31

Take a minute to rejoice in the boundless joy of God.

I dare to speak of mysteries beyond understanding, but we are given glimpses into these wonders in the Bible. See Isaiah 42:1; Job 38:4-7; John 1:1-4; 17:1, 24; 1 Cor. 15:28; Eph. 1:10; Phil. 2:6; Col. 1:16-19; Heb. 1:1-3. There's a good explanation of the theological position I described in Jonathan Edward's essay On The Trinity, or see chapter 1 of John Piper's The Pleasures of God.

The original artwork in this post is by my daughter, Elizabeth Williams, age 9.