Daily Encouragement: Day 321

Adapted from Handbook to Spiritual Growth

OUR HIGHEST GOOD

The Greek mathematician Archimedes demonstrated that he could lift the world with a long enough lever supported on a fulcrum that is placed at the right point outside the earth. Just as this Archimedean point cannot be on the earth, so we cannot transcend the world unless the fulcrum of our affection is the I AM, the unchanging One who spoke the world into being. He is the “one thing [that] is necessary” (Luke 10:42), the “treasure hidden in the field” (Matthew 13:44), the “one pearl of great value” (Matthew 13:46) whose kingdom and righteousness must be sought first (Matthew 6:33) with an undivided heart that chooses Him alone as the soul’s highest good.

The more we want to want Him, the more we desire to desire Him, the more we will be satisfied. And as John Piper observed in Desiring God, God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him. The only path to lasting pleasure is to risk everything on seeking God’s pleasure and approval above our own. Only the things we relinquish to Him will be ours in the end.