Pleasure Bestowed

We want what makes us feel good. We are willing to endure pain if the result is pleasurable. We will wait years for fulfillment if it's worth it. If the cost is more than the reward, we walk away.

This simple concept is really what drives us. It even drives our relationship with God. We give ourselves to Him as long as it feels good, and we get an easily measurable benefit from Him. When it gets tough, or the benefits aren't easily seen, our doubts build and we are tempted to walk away. Sadly, this happens all the time. In fact, I just saw a friends post about Anne Rice, who famously accepted Christ after years of...well, definitely not living for Christ. She has renounced her Christianity. The story said she was upset with the views held by Christians on issues like homosexuality. Her story is not very different from thousands, maybe millions, of Christians who once followed, but have now walked away.

Sometimes this is because the teachings of Christ lose their appeal to them. For others, like Miss Rice, it seems to be that the actions of Christians have soured them. Whatever the case, utlimately, the pleasure bestowed by a relationship with God is less than or equal to the pleasures bestowed by other things.

Let's be honest- we have all sought pleasure from lesser things over the pleasure of God. And we do it often. Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying don't enjoy the lesser things, but I am saying don't let them take precedent over God.

"OK, Chad, how can I pursue these 'lesser things' and still honor God?" I'm so glad you asked, Random Made Up Reader. The answer, I believe, lies in Psalm 37:4.

"Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Think about that word, "delight." It's not a common word today, so I think a definition is key. Per Dictionary.Com, "to give great pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoyment to; please highly." We are to take great- I daresay, ultimate- pleasure in God. We are to be consumed by Him and our pursuit of Him. This is the easy to grasp part, for me. Not easy to apply, necessarily, but easy to understand.

The second part is, well, muddy. One reading's emphasis seems to suggest that if the have gotten satisfaction from God, He gives us whatever we desire. Sounds awesome. Except, God is not, nor has He ever been, a genie in a bottle. Delighting in God does not open the door to a new Camaro or big screen TV.

I choose to understand this second half like this: If we are satisfied by God, He begins to shape the desires of our life. The lesser things we thought we needed- he shows us that no, we didn't need them. Instead, we need this. For example: My desire is to own a mountain ranch in Colorado. I pursue this desire all out, but in the meantime, I begin a deep relationship with God. I get lost in Him, and suddenly, while a Colorado ranch would be nice, the deep desire of my heart has become to pursue a missionary project in God's name. God changes our heart to be more like His, not unlike how the person we most love subtley and slowly brings about changes in our lives, even as we are changing theirs. And maybe that ranch in Colorado is still a part of that desire- there are people who don't know Christ in the mountains of Colorado just like there are in Africa.

The issue of pleasure bestowed is that we must first seek our pleasure from God with first importance. Being satisfied by Him- He will subtly and slowly begin molding our desires so that what He finds pleasure in, we find pleasure in.

And really, thats probably much better than a Camaro, in the long run.