I'm feeling good...

Mike Kendall spoke on 'If it feels good, can it surely be wrong?' this lunchtime at Hot Pots.
In short, he said this:

- God invented pleasure
- We pervert pleasure by pretending to be God
- Trusting Jesus is key to perfect pleasure

As well as this classic quote from C.S. Lewis...

'Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.'

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

... he also mentioned that line from The Screwtape Letters, which I began reading this week, where Screwtape warns Wormwood to 'never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in asense, on the Enemy's ground. I know we have won many a soulthrough pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours.'

God invented pleasure - and that's a surprise to the world around us! I, someone who has been graced to understand in part God's blessing to me, too easily forget that actually life to the full is life under God's good and loving rule. As the Psalmist wrote:

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Ps. 16.11)

And yet I too often turn this down, for what I desire, and ultimately that desire is me usurping God. Perverting pleasure by pretending to be God. What should I do? Trust Jesus and know perfect pleasure. See the blessings of this world as not the end, but a means to see God's glory. Know pleasure as God knows pleasure.