It's Friday and we are all in the TGIF mood. On this final day of "Spot the Jesus" I wonder if we can find God's pleasure.
Many people seem to think that if something’s fun, it must be at least partially wrong. Yet God gives us the world to live in and enjoy. Jesus said he wants us to have life more abundantly.
Therefore, it is my feeling that pleasure is a place to meet God, whether it be the pleasure of nature, of playing, of loving one another, of beauty, or of the occasional overwhelming conviction that we are loved by God. Pleasure can really be a touchy subject sometimes because nobody wants their idea of happiness to be messed up by someone else's beliefs. Warren Berkley put it this way:
"Here is a man who is drunk more than he is sober. He has lost several jobs, destroyed his family, has no credibility with anybody but the bartender. And as he sinks lower and lower into decadence - you can hear him say, "God wants me to be happy."
Or, here is a woman who shuns her responsibility as a mother and wife; she throws herself into worldly success, runs off with another man; and as she pursues this new life somebody approaches her who cares - and her response is: "But God wants me to be happy."
A young Christian - your parents have brought you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and you've had every advantage to know the Lord and discern between right and wrong. Yet, in spite of the advantages and the warnings you let yourself become vulnerable to the sexual immorality that is so constant in our society. Caught up in inordinate sexual activity - you become pregnant, or you get someone pregnant ... And are you going to say -- that God wants you to have this kind of happiness?
Well, of course God wants us to be happy. But what does that mean? What does He Mean? What kind of happiness does God have in mind for me? And isn't it true: God's concept of human happiness is not the same as the world's concept of happiness? "
The Beatitudes in Matthew 5 all begin with "Blessed or happy are they who...." so YES God does wants us to be happy and the joy of the Lord is our strength.
Have a pleasurable day
By Ijeoma Olujekun
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