By David ReayThursday 22 Jun 2017LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read James 1:17
17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. (NLT)
We sometimes mistakenly believe that God is somehow anti pleasure. That he wants us to deny ourselves enjoyment and simply grit our teeth till we get to heaven where we will apparently sing endless hymns and find it fulfilling.
This is nonsense. Our text reminds us that any good and delightful thing we truly enjoy here and now has its ultimate source in God. He is the creator of true pleasure and true joy. In his book The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis has the chief devil say this: “God has made these pleasures. All our research so far has failed to produce even one. All we can do is to encourage humans to take His pleasures at times and in ways and in degrees which He has forbidden.”
So it is obviously true we can distort and misuse the good things God has given us. But this doesn’t alter the fact that they have their ultimate source in God. The evil one can only produce evil, not good. When he tempts us by telling us to ‘enjoy ourselves’, we can be sure he is twisting real enjoyment. Sinful pleasures are not sinful because they are pleasant, but because they rip pleasure out of its God-given context.
God is the one and only source of real pleasure. His adversary can only twist it out of shape. God gives pleasure as a gracious gift. His adversary wants us to seize it as the be all and end all of life.
Blessings
David Reay