Those who are familiar with the writings of John Piper, and in particular, “Desiring God” will inevitably notice significant similarities as they read this book. First off, Storms has been persuaded by Jonathan Edward’s link between glorifying God and enjoying God. This leads him to embrace John Piper’s concept of “Christian hedonism” – living for pleasure in God as the best (and only) way to glorify God.

Storms moves on to discuss enjoying the beauty of God, and uses the book of Revelation as he talks about being lost in wonder. In these early chapters then, Storms succinctly and persuasively champions the cause of enjoying God, and his more accessible style will certainly be appreciated by those who find Piper’s writings a bit dense.

Mid-way through the book, Storms begins to encourage us to see the glory of God in creation. He devotes a whole chapter to help us grasp the immense scale of the universe, without assuming any specialised scientific knowledge on the part of its readers. It will seem oversimplified to some, and this part of the book is generously scattered with quips presumably to help those who balk at the thought of studying science.

In fact, much of the later sections of the book read like typed transcripts of sermons, which perhaps goes some way to explain the occasional digressions (e.g. can God create a stone too big for him to lift?). He has a good array of illustrations and examples which should stick in the readers memory, and his use of Greek mythology to help explain the how joy in God aids the believer’s battle against sin is outstanding. The book closes appropriately with a discussion of heaven and also a brief note on the second coming, which is refreshingly free from speculation about how and when.

Storms deserves credit for bringing such an important subject like this into a format that can be appreciated by a wider audience than those who like to read Edwards or even Piper. If you want a point by point argument for Christian Hedonism, Piper is your man, but if you just want to be inspired to enjoy God as much as possible, then this is the book for you.