Do I love God more for God or for His gifts?

I heard a sermon recently where the pastor was going to speak about prayer. However before he started the main point of his sermon he quoted John Piper from his book "God is the Gospel". In his book John Piper asks the question that if we could have all of Heaven with all of it's benefits, blessings and good things...but without God, would we be happy? Would we agree to that? Then the pastor went on to give an example. He spoke of a scenario where he comes home to find that the house is all immaculately clean. It smells wonderful. There is a plate of freshly baked cookies on the kitchen table with a fresh pot of coffee. Everything is just perfect in the house. He walks through and admires the completion of all things that were out of place or unfinished in the past. He enters his bedroom and his bed is made and smells of fresh linens and all of his dress shirts are pressed and hung neatly in the closet. There are lovely flowers on the dresser with a loving note from his wife. However his wife isn't there. She's not home and she's never going to be there again. She's disappeared. He asked how we thought he would feel. Would he shrug and carry on enjoying the cookies and the coffee? No - of course not. He would be filled with sorrow and would not be able to enjoy any of the blessings that his wife left behind because he could not enjoy her with them.

This morning while I was driving I got to thinking about this again. Would I be content to enjoy the gifts of God if I could no longer have God? Would I give a shrug to my loss of relationship with God so long as I could continue on living a happy healthy care-free life? Honestly, what if I could live with the assurance that everything would be pleasant and wonderful for the rest of my life here on earth and I would still get to go to heaven and enjoy all of the peace and joy that it holds, but without God...would I be okay with that? Is God my lover or just my provider and problem solver? Why do I love God? Is it because He is so amazing and wonderful or it is because He meets my needs (both spiritually and physically). The things that God does are not merely what makes God wonderful but rather God is wonderful and so he does those things: whether it is sending Jesus to die on the cross or healing our child or providing for us when money is tight. Those acts of love and faithfulness are the overflow of who God is and they are meant to draw us in a circle right back to God to see and know Him; they are not meant to sweep us away from Him in the tidal wave of His generous gifts.

I can say that after thinking about all of this for awhile that I have a lot more thinking to do. But this I know: I want to love God for who He is, not just for what He does for me. I am praying that He will help me to love Him more because He is worthy and I am confident that He will help me, because He has drawn me faithfully to Himself thus far. To that end I think I am going to go back and read John Piper's book "God is the Gospel" again.

To God be the glory!