Word of Encouragement (2/10/2021)
We are talking about the necessity of prayer. Yesterday, we spoke of our need for a God-centered perspective, especially in the morning as we feel the burdens of the day. Today, let’s talk about another aspect of the God-centered perspective we need.
They say that pleasure is the most powerful motivator in all that we do. This is not necessarily bad, of course. In fact, we can say that this is how God wired us when He created us. This shows how good God is: He made us to be drawn to pleasure rather than pain because pleasure is what He wants us to experience and enjoy, not pain. It is not wrong to seek pleasure.
But we recognize that not all pleasures are the same. There are simple, physical pleasures we experience when we eat good food or taste delicious fruits or when we can finally relax from a long day of work. There are also aesthetic pleasures we experience when we read something good or gaze at something beautiful. There are also relational pleasures, which come from interacting with kindred spirits. And there are spiritual pleasures, which we experience when we are engaged in an intimate communion with God. We can say that there is a hierarchy of pleasures—from physical, temporary pleasures to longer-lasting and spiritual pleasures.
But we have to admit that Adam’s Fall has perverted this God-given desire for pleasure. It has turned the hierarchy of pleasures upside down. We neglect the most important pleasures (which come from our communion with God) while we make the less important pleasures (those immediate and physical ones) our top priority. Not only that, in our fallen nature, we take pleasure in all kinds of wickedness—gossips, slanders, curses, idleness, violence, abuse, sexual immorality, etc. Even though we are born again and being sanctified, we can feel our attraction toward sinful pleasures and detect our tendency to make more of the less important pleasures. These things get amplified as we live in the city of man, where the sinful pleasures are legitimized and pursued without much restraint or shame.
This is why prayer is so important and necessary. Prayer is concerned with the deepest desires of our hearts—our longing for pleasures, if you will. And God wants to use our prayer to reorient our desires and longings. Simply addressing God in prayer and becoming mindful of Him can make this reorientation happen. But this is also the reason that our prayer should be accompanied by a Scripture reading. The Word of God, like a compass, points out our deviation from the right course of pursuing pleasure and reorients us toward the right direction.
What is it that you really desire? Maybe the reason that you feel so rushed, so swamped, so anxious, and so frustrated and unhappy has a lot to do with your disordered longing for pleasures. I hope you don’t try to keep that away from God by not praying. Remember that God gave you the desire for pleasure and the capacity to feel it because He wants you to experience the goodness of His pleasure. Come to God in prayer with an open heart so that He can reorient your heart according to His and share with you His pleasures!