God Doesn’t Want You To Be Miserable
For years Christians have been leading the charge to deny pleasures in the pursuit of Jesus. After all in Matthew 16:24 Jesus tells us we need to pick up our cross and follow Him. Dying to ourself doesn’t seem like a pleasure seeking move. However I think we have been focusing on the wrong thing.
Christians have been some of the biggest buzzkills in the world. And I don’t think that’s what God wants. Think with me for a minute. God created this world and everything in it. He made the grass a vivid green. The skies a beautiful blue. He created an incredible variety in the landscape. There is a plethora of animals, many we don’t even know about. The earth is crazy. We have discovered a small fraction of the other planets in the universe and thus far none have the diversity that this one has. Why? Why would God go through such great lengths to create such an incredible world? Because He is a good God that wants us to enjoy it and be full of joy and pleasure.
All that God created would not matter had he not created us will the ability to experience it. He put thought and detail in the human body design so that we can take great pleasure from his creation. All good things come from God. I would argue that everything that we see as a “bad” pleasure actually is just a twisted view of something good. God is a good God that wants us to experience joy and pleasure in our lives. If that were not the case God would not have created the world in such a way.
Think about it this way. If you were to give your child a gift, you want them to enjoy it and find pleasure in the gift. God gives us good gifts all the time. The problem is we often take the gift and use it in the wrong way. Or we start worshipping the gift instead of the one who gave us the gift. It is like a child taking his parents’ gift and then turning and bashing his sibling over the head with it. Or a child that totally forgets his parent gave him that good gift and is ungrateful for the person that gave it to him.
Too often we worship the gift and not the giver. We settle for the lesser pleasure and worship the gift and not the one that can give us infinitely more.
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. C.S. Lewis
God is offering us infinite joy, but we still chase after something far less. Our desires are not too strong; they are weak and in the wrong place.
Maybe you are thinking now if this is true, if God really wants infinite joy, why does he tell us to deny ourselves? Why does he tell us to pick up our cross? These two don’t seem to go together. But we are looking at it from the wrong angle. God doesn’t ask us to give up a pleasure in life without the promise of a greater pleasure. When God tells us to deny ourselves it’s because there’s something better he has for us.
No, this isn’t the prosperity gospel. I’m not saying we give up something on this earth to get something better on this earth. I’m saying that we should take each gift from God and see it as just that a gift. Nothing more. A gift that will give us temporary pleasure that will eventually fade. Instead of letting our life’s focus be on the pursuit of the gifts, let the gifts point us back to God.
When you have something good in your life such as your kids, marriage, house, job, money, car, vacation, food, friends, clothes, etc… Thank God for them. But don’t let your life’s pursuit become about them. Take joy from them. But don’t put your hope in them. Worship God and not the gifts.
I think we have the wrong view of pleasure. God wants our lives to be full of joy and pleasure. Our problem is that we pursue the lesser pleasures in life. Instead of pursuing God, the ultimate source of pleasure, we settle for mud pies in the slum when have access to a holiday at the sea. Our problem isn’t too strong of desires. Our problem is our desires are too weak and in the wrong place.
Where are your desires right now? Do you take the gifts of God and enjoy them? Do you find the pleasure he wants you to have? Has your life become about the pursuit of some fading pleasure? If anything other than God is your source for joy in your life then you will eventually be let down. God is the only one that can bring you full and complete satisfaction.
Sorry, but this sounds like it was written by someone who was born on third base and thinks they hit a triple. God stuck me with a horrible family, took the few people who cared out of my life and pushes me down every time I get back up. He creates some people just so he can destroy them.
God has denied me all that makes life worth living. I can never know the least bit of happiness this side of eternity. I’m just old enough to realize how hopeless things are for me. If I can make it to Heaven, I’ll be happy. But I will be miserable until then.
My life is meaningless, empty and I will always be completely alone. God has not provided for my non physical needs and He will not because it’s too late. He can be sovereign, holy, just and still not love me.
There is no doubt in my mind that He despises women like me. He doesn’t love us at all and can’t be trusted to provide for those of us He has only contempt for.
“God’s redheaded stepdaughters” is how a woman I knew described Christians in our situation. And it doesn’t matter how I live or conduct myself or pray. Things will never improve since God has determined to only render me suffering and pain.
He has given me nothing to live for. No one to love or be loved by.
Things will improve, but not in this life.
Why am I so empty and alone? To demonstrate God’s sovereign glory or something. He takes great delight in crushing me down and sneering as I weep day after day in desolation.
I’ve quit looking after myself. I don’t matter to God after all.
I’ve quit praying. It makes no difference. He always says No.
I am too old. It will only get worse. And worse.
Rachel,
I don’t know if you’ll have a chance to read this, but let me just say that after reading your post, my heart absolutely breaks for you. I cannot begin to imagine the loneliness and pain and loss you have endured and felt for doubtless many years.
You took the time to write a very detailed and sincere message on your present state. That says to me that you are in a state of despair that few have been, but you also wish to be heard.
I hear you.
But more importantly, God Himself hears you.
I can’t pretend to have the cure for your current state, but the Bible has been an encouragement to me in dark times. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says that God’s “…strength is made perfect in weakness”. I too struggle with releasing things that I deeply desire to have, things that are not sinful or unholy in nature. However, they can become sinful if I hold fast to them more than I hold fast to God.
I can say from experience that when I have completely and utterly given things to Him, He has shown me His powerful and righteous nature, and reminded me why I should trust in Him at all times. He has even given me those things which I desire after showing my faith in Him.
Please consider that you are here, you are not spent, and God can use you for such amazing things and in such a way as to bring the joy back into your life if you will allow Him to do so.
I hope and pray that you will reconsider your plight with respect to God’s mercy, grace, and love.
Rachel:
I believe that anonymous129 has given some solid advice. Please consider that there are a lot of people living the same life you have described. Some just cover it up better than others. It is difficult to keep the faith when you are excluded; especially when everyone blithely goes about life. I’m sure the Apostle Paul talks about this sort of thing when he tells mature Christians not to discourage, by their lifestyle, others who are weaker in the faith. So, I don’t believe people who parade around their happiness and gratitude are actually acting like sons or daughters of God. They are just riding the wave of self-fulfillment and materialism like the unsaved. Maybe, instead of questioning God we should question the warped reality we are drowning in. Isn’t everything outside of the Word of God a script from the Devil? At least those things which speak to the source of contentment. Start speaking life instead of death every day. This is not always an easy thing to do, but the alternative is despair.
Excellent! This is such an important message for today. I will be sharing.
Blessings,
Lynn
Thanks for sharing and reading!
Thanks for this post. Some misc. thoughts:
Just what if the greatest joys and thrills and pleasures is giving away the gifts we have been given instead of keeping them for ourselves? All the gifts/esources God has given were never meant to be used/spent on ourselves but for the needs of others. Just what if the road to fulfillment and joy is through dark valleys of pain and suffering? If we are doulos (slaves) to Jesus, then the slave isn’t greater than the Master and if we are to emulate Him as disciples, His life was one of rejection and sorrows, ending in cruel death. We are to live lives of sacrifice not self indulgence. If it can’t be preached around the world, then it’s not the Gospel. And “enjoying” life seems to be an Americanized form of Christianity that is foreign to the Scriptures and millions of Christians in third world countries. We are not here to enjoy ourselves. We are here as soldiers of the Cross and are not to become entangled in the pleasures of this world but to fight to win the lost, using whatever we have been given in the battle. There will be plenty of time in Heaven for pleasure and enjoyment.
I think you are right. I think God experiences the greatest joy giving us gifts. And we can experience the greatest joy from giving away what he gave to us.
I know this is years removed, but I am just now reading this article. This is precisely where I am at in my journey, but I think I’m at a slightly different conclusion at this point.
I think we have to have some balance. With your line of reasoning, if “being content with less” is the goal, then why are we trying to increase other people? Wouldn’t Jesus say those people should also be content with less, after-all? Why would Jesus want others to have more, if having things at all is bad? Therefore if we can’t place a concrete demarkation as to what constitutes “poor enough” we risk falling into a paradox of infinite regress in either direction. Thus, balance is required.
the pleasure in life come from following Christ, doing the things he did, making HIM happy.
it’s like a kid who colors inside the lines for the first time and runs to Daddy to show him what he did.
Both the Dad and the Kid know it’s not perfect except viewed through the lens of LOVE.
Thank you for writing this post. I love common sense.
Yes! Denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Christ is about allowing God to take control of our lives. It’s about relinquishing our own petty doctrines, agendas and idols and seeking first the kingdom of God, which is love.
We’ve confused that with taking pleasure in God’s creation, and feeling joy in the blessings He has given us.
Great post, Jeffery.
Thanks for stopping by!