Hayo everybody,
It's no surprise that God created appetites and also pleasures to satisfy them, but I wanted to dig at the purpose of pleasure. on the one hand pleasure IS a gift and blessing to His beloved children, on the other (the part we often forget) it is meant to serve as a reminder to worship. pleasure is meant to be God-glorifying when coupled w/ thankfulness. This is why i do not consider as sanctity, the ascerbic denial of pleasure for its own sake - fasting is pointless unless it is coupled with praise.
This is why we say grace before we eat, to take at least 10-30 seconds out of our busy lives to essentially say "hey God, i have food, it is good(?) for me and will probably taste delicious - i get pleasure out of eating this. This is ultimately a gift from You, so thank You." This is, i think, the proper way to experience pleasure - any pleasure. When we delight in art, music, our loved ones, our...ahem...spouses, our strength, and our beauty, we should be just as persistent and genuine in giving God glory through thanksgiving as we do in meal time prayers.
I go on to say that anything outside of that becomes sin. Pleasure for its own sake, without thanksgiving to the God who gave it to you is pride and idolatry. This means a man can be damned for eating a piece of chocolate without an attitude of thankfulness by essentially thinking, "I earned this chocolate, this chocolate is rightfully mine, I deserve this pleasure." Purposefully exaggerated, but on some levels, this IS how we all think when we fail to give God praise. I dont say this to use fear or guilt as a call to worship, but to hopefully show how much grace is accorded us DAILY when we sin by forgetting God. Sin is not simply doing bad things, but also turning morally neutral, or even good, things into idols.
Lastly, given that we're designed to hunger and long for things Eternal, experiencing good and beautiful things and attributing praise to God is the ONLY way to experience true, lasting pleasure. This is because what we're really looking for when we seek worldly pleasures is Eternity. Solomon was able to experience everything the world had to offer in terms of pleasure and his conclusion towards the end of his life was that apart from God, all of it was a meaningless chasing after the wind.
Encouragement for the week, glorify God with our pleasures and appetites through active praise and thanksgiving.
Have a pleasurable week!
Edward
"For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer." - 1 Timothy 4:4–5
"But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin." - Romans 14:23
"'Everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me' - but I will not be mastered by anything." - 1 Corinthians 6:12
After the dentist (thx sandy!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs
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