Rejoice in the Lord

This morning I went to breakfast at Starbuck's with my friend Kimmy, who is also a co-worker at Chick-fil-a. We had a GREAT conversation about Bible studies and school and how important it is to learn more about God every day. She gave me this really awesome quote that I want to share with you. This isn't the exact quote, but you'll get the general idea:

If we don't find joy in knowing God here on earth, how can we expect to enjoy eternity with Him?

Wow...ouch. That one hit me pretty hard. I guess that's because I just never considered the importance of experiencing joy in God. But we are going to be spending an ETERNITY with Him. So why not find joy in His presence right here, right now?
We are going through the book of Philippians in our Wednesday night Bible studies at our church, and we just finished the passage in chapter 4 about rejoicing in the Lord. I was reminded of that when Kimmy told me this quote.
Here is the verse I'm talking about (Philippians 4:4):

"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!"

Short, simple, and sweet...but not very easy to obey. :)
My pastor made a comment about this particular command, saying that it was just that: a command. It's not an option. It is God's expectation for every Christian.
I love those verses that don't give you an option (not really). It's so hard to obey them! But what Kimmy said this morning gave me a new perspective that makes it a little easier.
My pastor also said that we should think of the command "rejoice" as "be satisfied." So I thought about putting the two ideas together, which leaves us with:

If we are not satisfied with God here on earth, how can we expect to be satisfied in eternity?

That's kind of a depressing thought. Not being satisfied in eternity? Getting almost there, but not quite? That would be really discouraging.
So I thought about some ways I could find more joy in knowing God. There's a book by John Piper called "When I Don't Desire God: How To Fight For Joy." I have yet to read it, but I will very soon and will let you know when I finish it.
If you're interested, go look for it in a bookstore. It will probably be in there somewhere. If not, there's always amazon. :)

For now, here is John Piper's website that has sermons you can download about this topic, along with lots of other cool stuff: http://www.desiringgod.org/

P.S. The blueberry/strawberry granola yogurt parfait at Starbuck's is really fantastic. Go try it.