Pleasure is such a wonderful experience. It’s the reason we do most of the things we do.
It’s a feeling of satisfaction and enjoyment. Pleasure makes us feel so good that we often pursue it with everything with have. Its often what we hold on to, to get away from the emptiness, pain, gloom, depression and sadness we sometimes face in life.
It is enjoyment or satisfaction derived from what is to one’s liking, gratification or satisfaction.
Honestly, Pleasure is a good feeling.
But there is a means and route to get there and to mention a few – dancing, achievements, time out with Friends, promotion at work, success, food, music, spending an afternoon talking with your teenage kid; and then there is partying, drugs, alcohol, sex, adultery, and so on. The list is endless.
This short list probably shows a few things….
- There is the good route to pleasure and there is a bad route.
- Pleasure should never be an end in itself. You can binge on drugs and alcohol and revel in the pleasure throughout the night but then wake up with a depressive hangover the next morning. You can sneek around with the pleasure of adultery and in the end lose a wife, family and even a career. You can binge on ice cream, sugary and fatty foods, and end up with a heart problem.
- The truth is that the right kind of pleasure should be a reward for doing something laudable, holy, achieving purpose, observing God’s creation and should never be an end in itself.
- God himself created a world full of pleasure from sights, sounds, touch, food – (Personally, i think Mangoes and plantain were made in heaven.)
Remember pleasure is a feeling so we can decide to choose the good route to pleasure always.
King David watched a beautiful woman bathing from his roof. As he watched, sin and desire took root. This was another man’s wife but regardless, He sent for her and spent the whole night in pleasure. What followed was trouble.
He exchanged one night of pleasure with an unwanted pregrancy; the need to kill her husband to avoid disgrace and he sinned against God. There were repercussions – the child died; years after, his wives were raped in public; there was a coup against him. Because of his sin, God said the sword will never depart from his house – and 3 of his sons died violently.
His life was never really the same again after that.
The truth is that he could have had that same night of pleasure with his wife if he set his mind to it and would have avoided years of trouble. His route to pleasure was wrong and sinful
The bible says in 2 Tim 3:1-5 (NIV)
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
having a form of godliness but denying its power. .
Every pleasure we desire must be compatible with God, If not then let it’s best to let it go.
The reality is that God Himself is enough; His gifts are enough; His presence is enough; His worship is enough.
I’ve been lost in worship before, singing songs of praise, tears streaming down my face endlessly because of the glimpse of Gods glory seen in my heart. For days after; I was walking on cloud nine. That is an excellent route to pleasure!
… SEEKING GOD’S HEART