John Piper - The Satisfied Soul: Showing the Supremacy of God in All of Life

Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals

A Camaraderie of Confidence (Swans 7)

Contending for Our All (Swans 4)

The Dangerous Duty of Delight

Desiring God

Does God Desire All to Be Saved?

Dont Waste Your Life

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die

Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ (Swans 5)

Finally Alive

Five Points

Future Grace

God Is the Gospel

Gods Passion for His Glory

A Godward Life

The Hidden Smile of God (Swans 2)

A Hunger for God

The Legacy of Sovereign Joy (Swans 1)

Let the Nations Be Glad!

Living in the Light with Money, Sex, and Power

A Peculiar Glory

The Pleasures of God

Reading the Bible Supernaturally

The Roots of Endurance (Swans 3)

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully (Swans 6)

Spectacular Sins

The Supremacy of God in Preaching

Think

This Momentary Marriage

What Jesus Demands from the World

Whats the Difference?

When I Dont Desire God

T HE S ATISFIED S OUL

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the ESV Bible (the Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( KJV ) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked ( NASB ) are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). Scriptures quotations marked ( NIV ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ( NKJV ) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( RSV ) are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952, [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the authors added emphasis.

Hardcover ISBN9781601429995

Ebook ISBN9780735289673

Copyright 2017 by Desiring God Foundation

These meditations originally appeared in John Pipers Pierced by the Word, Life as a Vapor, and A Godward Heart.

Cover design by Kristopher K. Orr; cover photography by Anthony Heflin, 500px

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

M ULTNOMAH and its mountain colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Piper, John, 1946 author.

Title: The satisfied soul : showing the supremacy of God in all of life / John Piper.

Description: First Edition. | Colorado Springs : Multnomah, 2017. | 120 daily meditations.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017031411| ISBN 9781601429995 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780735289673 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Meditations.

Classification: LCC BV4832.3 .P573 2017 | DDC 242dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031411

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To those who long for a satisfied soul.

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.

P SALM 90:14

O ne of the reasons I put together collections of short meditations is that my life has been changed as much by paragraphs as by books. Books on one topic are valuable. They let the author explore all the angles of an insight. But where do the insights themselves come from? Usually they come from paragraphs. Even sentences. For reasons not entirely explainable, God can make a single paragraph life changing.

Perhaps some evening your soul is hungry. Not for anything in particular, just a soul-hunger. A longing. Something is needed beyond what television is going to give. Something about God, or about the meaning of your life, or about eternity. Youre tired and you know that you probably cant stay awake to read twenty pages. So you pick up a book that you know focuses on eternal things, a Godward book. And three minutes later you have seen something, and you will never be the same again.

It may take a lifetime to sound the depths of what you just saw. But the seeing happens in an instant. Its as if God takes the paragraph in his fingers and uses it to adjust the lens on the eye of your soul, and something wonderful comes into focus that you had never seen before.

Isnt it amazing to think about the relationship between Gods focusing fingers and the human activity of writing and reading? You may have read that same paragraph beforeperhaps just the other evening. But this time, God put his fingers on it and turned the lens just one more focusing notch. What this means is that I should pray as a writer, and you should pray as a reader. We should ask God to do this focusing.

I think of your reading and my writing as a kind of partnership in the pursuit of a Godward miracle. I write, you read, but God gives the sight. What we both want is this miracle of seeingseeing life-changing things about God and life and eternity.

In one of his letters, the apostle Paul said, By reading you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:4, authors translation). But was reading enough? A few sentences later he prayed, That you may have strength toknow the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:1819). Something more was needed than reading. Something from Godhe called it strength to know. Earlier he had prayed that the eyes of his readers hearts would be enlightened that you may know (Ephesians 1:18). Something from God is neededin answer to prayer. This is what I meant when I said that God takes a human paragraph and puts his fingers on the lens of the eye of your soul. The slightest turn, and we are made strong with sight. We are never the same again.

So I have written. And you are reading. And God is ready to act. My words are not Scripture. They are not infallible like Gods words. But my earnest aim in all I write is to be faithful to Gods written Word in the Bible. To point to God and his Son and his works and his ways. My aim is a Godward book in the hope that God would put his fingers on its paragraphs and turn the lens of the eye of your soul, ever so delicately, and bring glories into focus.