Batting Unbelief

Our church is beginning a DVD study in January on Battling Unbelief by John Piper. The material is essentially an abridgment of his larger work, Future Grace. I must confess that my initial reaction to the prospect of doing this study was not very enthusiastic. I was trying to trust the judgement of the leaders in our church, but I honestly didn't think unbelief affected me much. Will I ever overcome pride in my life!?! So far, the studies I have most benefited from in this church have been the ones of which I least thought I "needed" to be a part. I suspect that will be no less true of this study. Always an overachiever (and having read some reviews and learned more about the study), I bought the larger work (Future Grace) so that I wouldn't miss anything. Here is a quote from the introduction:

"Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us until we believe that God is more to be desired than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Which means that the power of sin's promise is broken by the power of God's" (Future Grace, pg. 10-11).

So...Mr. Piper's thesis is essentially that we sin because we do not believe God's promises will deliver more happiness than the "happiness" that sin promises us. Well, in that case, I suppose there is much unbelief in my life because I sin many times each day. I am definitely looking forward to participating in this study with the ladies in my church. It is always such a joy to seek to apply God's word to our lives and grow together! I'm sure I'll be sharing more little nuggets from this book in the future.