BETTER PLEASURE

The Search for a Better Pleasure
Desire is a tricky thing. It has the
power to lead us either to a throne
or a tomb, to slavery or freedom, to
true joy or mirages of satisfaction.
The war of faith and desire began in
the Garden. In Genesis 3:5, Satan is
ending his conversational attack on
Eve’s faith by influencing her logic,
causing her to question not only the
commandment of God but the
character of God. He uses his
demonic craftiness to subtly lie to
Eve, telling her that God will not do
what he said, that he’s not as good
as she thinks he is.
** Sinful Desires?
————————————————————
When the character of God comes
into question, the mind and the
heart will begin to reroute its
desires onto something else. After
all, so the questions go, can God
really be trusted? Eve started down
this path, which then led her to see
things in a tree that did not exist.
Her desires craved satisfaction, and
her heart turned away from her
Creator.
Eve believed the tree would be
good for food. She believed it
would be the delight she longed for.
She desired it in order to become
wise.
But were these desires sinful in
themselves? Who doesn’t desire
something pleasurable to the
senses? Or who wouldn’t want
wisdom? Is it wrong to want
knowledge? Solomon prayed for it
and was commended by God for
asking.
We all have this same pleasure
factory hidden deep in our souls,
causing us to desire comfort whenhurt, healing when sick, peace in
the midst of chaos, or provision
when in need. These desires aren’t
inherently sinful or wicked, just
human.
** The Fatal Bypass
————————————————————
So how is it that when Eve decided
to take up the fruit and eat, along
with Adam, that sin and death
entered into the world?
It is because Eve bypassed her
Creator’s sufficiency and wanted to
be satisfied apart from him. That is
the sin. Her appetite, no longer
content with what God had given
her, craved more, even at the
expense of her soul. Her heart was
beating with the capacity to
appreciate beauty, but she no
longer saw God as the most
attractive being in the universe.
Instead, she believed beauty was
found in the very thing that would
lead to her destruction. She
disregarded God’s infinite wisdom
by seeking knowledge through a
tree, which ironically made her a
fool (see Romans 1:22–23).
You and I are prone to repeating
this same wicked cycle. It’s deep in
our fallenness. When we crave
security, too often we look for it in
weak, temporal substitutes, as if
sex, drugs, and human relationships
can actually fill the void at the core
of our being. If we’re sick, too
often we look for gimmick
promises of peace. If we have
needs, we’d prefer quick money
over the path of patience.
Even for Christians, the desire to be
known, appreciated, and affirmed
apart from God wreaks havoc on
the soul, causing us to cheat the
Spirit’s ministry for our own gain.
** Clinging to Him
————————————————————
So what are we to do? How do we
cease from replicating our first
parent’s blunder?
Faith in Jesus.
Though humanity fell when Adam
and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the
ruin began when they stopped
trusting God. They didn’t think he
meant what he said, that he wasn’t
as good as he promised. But we
know better. We have seen his love
and faithfulness not only in the
history of his people, but most
vividly in the person of his Son.
Jesus is the sure affirmation that