Glad about glory?

How to emphasize not a great self but a great splendor | John Piper

One of the most stunning shifts in American Christianity is the shift away from God as the all-satisfying gift of God's love. The Bible teaches that the best and final gift of God is the enjoyment of God. In place of this we have turned the love of God into a divine endorsement of our delight in being made much of.

Test yourself: Do you feel more loved when God makes much of you or when He enables you to enjoy making much of Him? Does your happiness hang on seeing the cross of Christ as a witness to your worth, or as a way to enjoy God's worth forever? Is God's glory at the bottom of your gladness?

The sad thing is that a radically man-centered view of love permeates our culture and our churches. From the time they can toddle, we teach our children that feeling loved means feeling made much of. We have built educational curricula, parenting skills, motivational strategies, therapeutic models, and selling techniques around this view of love. Most Americans can scarcely imagine an alternative understanding of feeling loved other than feeling made much of. If you don't make much of me you are not loving me.