Enjoying God In Secondary Pleasures

Enjoying God in Secondary Pleasures

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

— Romans 8:32

God himself, who is the Author of virtue, shall be our reward. As there is nothing greater or better than God himself, God has promised us himself. God shall be the end of all our desires, who will be seen without end, loved without cloy, and praised without weariness.^a

— AUGUSTINE

Do you think God is pleased when we enjoy a good meal, a football game, laughter with friends, a cozy fire, or a good book? Your answer to that question not only demonstrates your view of God but also indicates the degree to which you are able to enjoy life. And it will determine how much you will look forward to the resurrection and what the Bible calls the New Earth.

Scripture says, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17). God, not wealth, should be the object of our hope. But God is also the one who richly grants us his provisions, which are intended for our enjoyment.

Failure to understand the goodness of God’s creation has blinded countless people from seeing Heaven as a place of great pleasure and enjoyment. Instead, they think that for Heaven to be “spiritual,” it must somehow be drab, unappealing, and bereft of “earthly” things, which they consider unspiritual.

God’s first commandment is that we should put no created thing before him. We should never make what he has created into a God substitute. But sometimes we wrongly conclude that people and things and pleasures are therefore bad, forgetting that it was God himself who made them.

God is not up in Heaven frowning at us and saying, “Stop it—you should find joy only in me.” This would be as foreign to our heavenly Father’s nature as it would be to mine as an earthly father if I gave my daughters a Christmas gift and then pouted because they enjoyed it too much. No, I gave the gift to bring joy to them and to me. I am delighted when they enjoy the gifts I’ve given them. If they didn’t, I’d be disappointed. Their pleasure in my gift to them draws them closer to me.

Though preoccupation with a God-given gift can turn into idolatry, enjoying that same gift with a grateful heart can draw us closer to God. In Heaven, we’ll have no capacity to turn people or things into idols. When we find joy in God’s gifts, we’ll find our joy in him. Enjoying God’s gifts to us should never move us away from him; it should always draw us closer.

All secondary joys are derivative in nature. They cannot be separated from our primary joy, which is God. Flowers are beautiful because God is beautiful. Rainbows are stunning because God is stunning. Puppies are delightful because God is delightful. Sports are fun because God is fun. Study is rewarding because God is rewarding. Work is fulfilling because God is fulfilling.

Ironically, sometimes people who are the most determined to avoid the sacrilege of putting things before God miss a thousand daily opportunities to thank him, praise him, and draw near to him because they imagine they shouldn’t enjoy the very things that God has made to help us know him and love him.

God is a lavish giver. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). The God who gave us his Son delights to graciously give us “all things.” These “things” are in addition to Christ, but they are never instead of him—they come “along with him.” If we didn’t have Christ, we would have nothing. But because we have Christ, we have everything. Hence, we can enjoy the people and things that God has made, and in the process we enjoy the God who designed and provided them for his own pleasure and ours.

God welcomes prayers of thanksgiving for meals, warm fires, games, books, hobbies, sex, and every other good thing. When we fail to acknowledge God as the source of all good things, we fail to give him the recognition and glory he deserves. We separate God from joy, which is like trying to separate heat from fire or wetness from rain.

The movie Babette’s Feast depicts a conservative Christian sect that renounces “worldly” distractions—until Babette prepares an unforgettable dinner that opens their eyes to the richness of God’s provision. When we partake in heartfelt gratitude to God, these things draw us closer to God, not away from him. That’s precisely what all things and all beings in Heaven will do—draw us to God.

In our lives on Earth, we should see God everywhere in his creation: in the food we eat, the friendships we enjoy, and the pleasures of family, work, and hobbies. But we should never let these secondary pleasures eclipse our love for God (and thus we, in fact, must sometimes forgo them). We should thank him for all of life’s joys, large and small, and allow them to draw us closer to him.

That’s exactly what we’ll do in Heaven. Why not start now?

Father, many of us have lost sight of the fact that you created the earth and that you are the inventor of pleasure. You created our bodies with nerve endings and taste buds and senses that allow us to find pleasure. But as a result of the Fall, we’ve misused your gracious provisions and turned them into idols. We’ve made substitute gods out of sex and money and food and a thousand other good things. Lord, only when we understand how you have richly provided the material world for our enjoyment can we then embrace your plan to reclaim what has been lost. Help us to see that pleasure is not unspiritual, that it is from your hand and for our enjoyment within the bounds of your commandments, which are designed to keep us from destruction. Help us to pursue you as the Great Pleasure from which every lesser pleasure flows.