Drawn to Pleasure

John Piper's book, Desiring God, is great, and you should read it. It seems that Piper's favorite saying is, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." This is very true.

The Lord has drawn me into the pleasure of knowing Him, and I want to help others know that same pleasure. It is what they are already seeking without knowing it. The other night as I sat down to pray, a bunch of theological issues that I had been thinking and praying about over the week prior were filling my head. I like to think about questions until I have answers; if there is an controversial issue, I feel the need to sort it out in my head so that I can both know what to think and do and help others with the same issue. But the Lord reminded me that my interaction with Him is not solely intellectual. I do not only learn knowledge from Him; I develop intimate, personal knowledge of Him through supernatural experience that surpasses understanding.

He reminded me that He wants me to take pleasure in Him. Not only that, but He wants to be my greatest pleasure of all, the object of my heart's desire. If that is not the case, the Scriptures indicate there is an extremely serious problem with me. This idea of enjoying God and being a "Christian hedonist" (a phrase coined by Piper) is not an optional rung in the ladder of Christianity, one of those steps of maturity that you might attempt someday after you've taken enough sermon notes. It's absolutely indisposable and foundational. It's equally for the newest Christians and the oldest. Don't go another step until you have hot, passionate desire.

One of the passages that God brought to my mind was I Corinthians 13:1-3. It precedes verses 4-8 which tell us that love is not just words and feelings, but action. Verses 1-3, however, contain a list of really commendable works that one could do and a declaration that those works are absolutely worthless if they are done without love. So then, what is love? This text shows us that love goes beyond feelings of fondness, and it also goes beyond our actions. It is even possible to give all your possessions to the poor and sacrifice your life for a great cause (even the cause of Christ, I speculate) and still not have love. So what does it really mean to love God if you can be a bona fide martyr who ministered to people with powerful spiritual gifts, had perfect doctrine, and led an impeccable life of service to the poor, and still not necessarily have loved God?

It seems that one attribute of real love that cannot be counterfeited is that a lover takes pleasure in that which he loves. People tend to spend their time doing what brings them the most pleasure (or what avoids the most pain, e.g. if we didn't work 40 hours a week, some painful financial consequences would follow.) This is why people don't pray much and don't read the Bible much: it gives them less pleasure than the other activities which compete for their time. Most Christians I know desire to desire Him, but they don't find it happening. They want to enjoy Him, but they just don't, and they can't figure it out. Sadly, some have resigned themselves to believing that fellowship with God was never meant to be pleasurable in the first place and so when they speak of prayer, they speak of it as a duty, an obligation that the Christian should fulfill in hope of some sort of unknown payoff in the future. And so they complete just the minimum amount of prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with the saints that it takes to avoid feeling guilty.

The built-in human desire for pleasure has, in the name of holiness, been denounced too often as a function of the base, sin nature of man. Just like the other atributes God has made us with, the desire for pleasure can produce heinous results when it is perverted, but that does not mean the original, God-given form is evil.

In fact, desire and pleasure are the two of the biggest features in the human relationship created by God to most prominently display what the relationship between Jesus and human beings ought to be: marriage. Sex is the thing that distinguishes the marriage relationship from every other type, such as father-child, mother-child, friend-friend, and brother-sister relationships. And where in nature did God choose to give human beings the most poignant experience of both the longing of desire and the mountain tops of pleasure, but in sex? Since sex is central to marriage, what does this picture in the created order tell us about God? Remember that, "...what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse..." (Romans 1:19-20) The created order testifies loudly that loving God means desiring Him passionately and finding your highest pleasure in him.

So, where are you? What are you supposed to do if you realize that you don't currently find your greatest pleasure in God? You want to want Him, and you wish you could enjoy Him. You may have found a replacement for the ecstasy of God's presence such as the pleasure of learning intellectual truths about God or service or ministry. These pursuits are good, but do not use them as a substitute for the incomparable rapture of the fire of God's presence. Realize that the situation in which you find yourself is not off the beaten path; it is not uncommon to human beings. In fact, I think it is, in a way, the central struggle for every person - the struggle to walk in faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I don't think I would be taking too great a liberty with the text to replace the word 'seen' with either the word 'felt' or the word 'experienced.' Just like Abraham waiting for his ninety-year-old wife to bear him son, you have been promised that in God are greater pleasures than you can imagine (I Peter 1:8, Psalm 16:11, and 37:4), but at this point, you haven't experienced it. In fact, your experience so far tells you that the opposite is true. Like Abraham, you may have begun to doubt that such an incredible, impossible thing could actually be true and so you have launched your own effort to satisfy your craving for pleasure in God with the pleasure of ministry or service or learning or other good pursuits.

If you can just get the smallest spark of faith in your heart that your greatest joy in this life can be dwelling in God's presence, a mustard seed of faith that God will answer you in such a manner when you seek His face (read Psalm 27), then go someplace alone and ask God for it! Pray and meditate on His Word in faith that He will change your heart and supernaturally reveal Himself to you as you seek Him. "But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) Do it today, and keep doing it; He will meet you there.