EVERYTHING GOD MADE IS PLEASURABLE!
Think about it! We sing the song all the time, “God is good…all the time…” but do we mean it?
God made…
…the beautiful colors that make up nature…the color and scent and feel of grass…the beautiful shades of color in the sky…the clouds…the feel, purpose and scent of rain…snow…the look and smell and sound of the ocean and the beach…the sun…the animals…love…each other…sex…hugging…
The world GOD MADE is full of wonder and beauty! Entire channels on cable are dedicated to God’s wondrous earth!!!
So, far from our natural inborn desire for pleasure being a sign that we’re “sinful” – it is a sign that we’re born with a natural desire for God and His Creation!!! It’s evidence that He has set eternity in the heart of man! It’s evidence that God made a Creation to please us and He made pleasure possible for us. He created the part of our brain that’s to lead us toward pleasure and away from pain because GOD is GOOD…and if we hunger for “pleasure” it will lead us to Him…
And the fact that we like the same things He does…just is further indication that we’re made in His image!
So, all pleasure comes from our GOOD God and our desire for pleasure is just evidence that we’re made in God’s image…now who do you suppose hates that? Do you really think satan’s just gonna stand by and let that go? You think he’s not going to attack that?
Sinning does not feel good. That is yet another lie from satan that sin feels good. Do we believe it?
Romans 1 says everything is knowable thru what God made…and God made our bodies and Sinning makes our bodies sick…If we would be responsive to the thing in our brain that tells us to stay away from things that are painful…we’d stay away from sin…
Psalm 31:10
My strength has failed because of my iniquity, and my body has wasted away.
Psalm 32:3
When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.
To think that our body desiring PLEASURE leads us to sin is a twisted and false understanding of “sin” because it is not pleasurable. There are some things that feel good while you’re doing it but…
If you spend the evening with your family gazing out at the sunset and enjoying each other’s company you go to bed that night and sleep peacefully. If you get caught doing that you do not have to justify it or make excuses for it. If you go out and get drunk at a bar and pick up someone to go have sex with at a motel…when you return home that night you do not sleep peacefully. And, if you get caught in the motel with the person from the bar, you don’t have to make any excuses, apologies, or justifications.
If while you were standing in the bar with a drink in your hand you were to seek TRUE pleasure, you’d set your drink down and head to home…you would seek God…and be spared the pain of sin. Sin enslaves. Slavery is painful.
The world makes it look like the partying life is full of laughter and good times, but it is not true. Simply not true! Yes, you laugh and you have some “good times” but all the while it feels icky. You have guilt. You have anxiety. And, you have an empty feeling inside. “There is a hole in the heart that can only be filled by God”…and everyone who has ever been in that lifestyle knows that empty feeling. Living a life of sin does not “feel good”.
Seems that having an improper understanding of what is good and what is sinful messes a lot of things up in life.
Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
On the contrary to what the world advertises as a fun life…Being in a right relationship with God FEEELS good even when trials and tribulation strike. And, so if you seek “pleasure” in the midst of a trial, you will be seeking a relationship with God.
When my husband (Mark) was killed in 1998…the closer I got to God the better I felt. Even while I was experiencing the greatest amount of pain in my life I felt pleasure drawing near to God. He relieved my pain.
When my husband now (Virgil) was being taken away in 1990 in the jungle of Guatemala to be executed…he started to feel afraid and to be in pain in his situation but when he drew near to God he felt pleasure…he felt joy in the midst of that trial and it actually saved his life.
I think people with a wrong understanding of this would believe that…if you saw an unprotected ipod on a table somewhere…and you desired to have the pleasure of owning an ipod…and so you stole that ipod…there are people who would believe that, “There! See! Having an ipod is a good thing and it led the person into sin because they wanted that pleasure!” But, this is not looking at this situation fully. The desire to possess an ipod would be a “pleasure seeking” desire, yes, but the desire for that pleasure is not what led to the sin. “The one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it to him it is sin.” Right?
The urge to steal in order to possess an ipod is not pleasurable…that urge will actually not feel good. Your body will instantly react negatively to the temptation to steal. The act of stealing in order to possess an ipod will not feel good. Guilt and fear of being caught will be among the emotions that will be happening in your body. Possessing a stolen ipod will not make you feel good because every time you look at it you will know you got it by stealing.
The ipod is a pleasurable item for those who like electronics and music. The desire to have one is not wrong. The desire to steal in order to have one is what is wrong and the desire to steal comes from your heart…not from your body! In fact, the desire to steal in order to have something will cause problems in your body! Your BODY does NOT want you to sin! It cries out against you every time you are tempted! And, that is why someone (maybe satan!) does NOT want you to understand this! That is why satan would prefer you believe that your body is your enemy and not to be trusted!
The pleasure-seeking programming in us is from God and for God and for our own good. It leads us to Him. It will help keep us free from sin. It is an evidence that we’re made in His image. The one who came to steal, kill, and destroy wants you to believe it is “sin”…
Really, could this be clearer??? Well, I guess it can, actually, ’cause as I keep talking to my kids and husband about this all day it does keep getting clearer!!!
(And, I need to add, because I am obsessed with this other subject too, that ignoring your baby when they cry…ignoring your baby’s cries for the pleasure of your presence or for food or comfort when they want it…when they are just starting off in life…mis-configures and mis-wires their brain in regards to pleasure and pain…”spoiling” as in “ruining” your kids is exactly what you do when you ignore their cries…And CAUSING pain to your children “for their own good…out of LOVE”…does some major confusing of this system also…)
I am still thinking…
