LEGITIMATE PLEASURE

 

LEGITIMATE PLEASURE

Build a home and life where God’s values are clearly before you:

1)      Anything that refreshes you without distracting you from your ultimate goal
is a legitimate pleasure.

2)      Any pleasure that jeopardizes the sacred right of another is an illicit pleasure.

3)      Proverbs 25:16:  If you find honey eat just enough of it; too much of it and
you will vomit.

Any pleasure no matter how good if not kept in balance will distort reality or destroy appetite.  KEEP your life in BALANCE – The best of pleasures have a shelf life and you walk away from them.  God alone is the perpetual novelty.

Pleasure for pleasures sake will leave you empty.  Pleasure must only be a means – it can never be and end in itself.

There is a place for legitimate pleasure. Pure pleasure brings you within the reach of God’s voice.

The ultimate pleasure you and I seek is the pleasure of intimacy where God alone is enjoyed in worship, it is worship that brings complete pleasure & if you and I learn to worship individually the day becomes a pleasurable one because there is a cohesiveness from the grid of which every other pleasure is interpreted.

Ravi Zacharias – What is worthwhile under the sun (2of2) archives Let My People Think

Listen to full talk at rzim.org at your leisure – a legitimate pleasure which I hope will help you grow closer to God by being wiser in the way you live and use your time.

Mark’s Analysis:

Ravi has some profound truths here from God’s treasure trove of wisdom to help us navigate our course in this life toward God and his will for us and our families and the body of Christ of which Christ is the head. 

How a simple walk, (not for exercise which can make a drudgery of it,) but for the pure pleasure of walking.  Or reading a good book (not to learn or to teach others some truth, ) but for pure personal enjoyment of reading it.  No hidden agenda’s just Pure simple pleasure because you enjoy it and it refreshes you.  I feel these things have been lost and are elusive to so many.  There is an old saying “Misery loves company”  People will try and drag you into their mess OR if they are really seeking may ask you why you are different and what’s your secret.  That is the moment for you to speak grace to their ears and let God’s words flow from your mouth with gentleness and respect meeting those people where they are and loving them to Christ – not by accepting their lifestyle but by not compromising on your own.  I for one am never bored which may seem strange to some people, but I can get lonely.  As I grow older I begin to see that when anyone is bored or lonely something is amiss in their lives.  Everyone needs a good wholesome Godly family to be a part of which should supply both security and direction in life as they grow in nurture and admonition of the Lord.  All who lack this will suffer from a lack of belonging and purpose.  That void that only God can fill -- people seem to try and fill with everything but God.   Society is of no help at all and is actually a hindrance to anyone seeking God.  We as Christ followers must be the example Christ called us to be to a dark world so that they may see His light in us and come to repentance and seek help from the only True God who bestows grace & fogiveness on all who will call on His name.