MAXIMIZE YOUR PLEASURE

Phil. 3:8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ. 

Have you ever thought about why it is tough to resist sin? Now for each of us some sins are more difficult than others. Some may tend to fall into gambling while someone else has no interest. Others may lean toward alcohol or drugs as their temptation of choice while others have no attraction to those sorts of things. Still others seem to gravitate toward sexual promiscuity or possibly pornography; the truth is that sin has a strong allurement connected to it. What is the strange attraction to sin, it is the promise of pleasure. It is joy that sin always manages to promise.

So how can one overcome their sins of choice? Is it will power or just making a quality decision? Sorry to say human will has no power over the temptations of sin. Our wills are enslaved to sin until we meet Christ. Actually it is the promise of joy in God that liberates us from the snares of sin. It is in the enjoyment of God that the power of sin loses its hold on us. How can that be? The enjoyment of God is so superior to the foolish pleasures of sin that there is no contest. We are freed by the power of His love. Sam Storms describes the power of pleasure in God in this quote from his book ‘Pleasures Evermore’.

“We succumb; we give in; we say yes to sin because we believe its promise of more pleasure than God gives. This leads me to the simple conclusion that the only way for us to successfully resist sin is by maximizing our pleasure in God. The key to victory over sin is satisfaction with all that God is for us in Jesus. Or again, the only way to fight the seductive power of one pleasure is with a greater pleasure, a more pleasing pleasure, the pleasure that comes from falling in love with Jesus.”

How does this truth work in the real world? Think how you fall into your sin of choice. You open yourself up to allurement from being in the wrong place looking at the wrong things. We have to put ourselves in the way of spiritual allurement. Look on Christ in His word, at church, and in worship and you will be drawn in by His beauty. You too will discover the attractiveness of Christ and experience freedom from the power of sin.