Devotions from Gary Thomas’ book Pure Pleasure

As Christians we need to embrace and celebrate true, godly pleasure, lest we become susceptible to soul-destroying substitutes. If we feel all pleasure is wrong, then we squeeze all the joy out of life and  end up squeezing part of God out of life too. We close ourselves off from the beautiful, and all-inviting side of God.  But He also gives us appropriate boundaries.  We can tell if a pleasure verges on becoming a dangerous threat to us by: 1. Thinking about it all the time. 2.Getting impulsive about it. 3. Getting compulsive about it. 4. Getting out of control about it etc.  It’s important to control our pleasures or they will control us. We must not become a slave to anything. There is a hierarchy of pleasure-with God at the top- that orders all of our other pleasures.  He designed us to receive pleasure in many ways as He is preparing us for an eternity of pleasures for ever more!  Let us have a healthy balance and not go off into extremes.  We need the right mix of work and play for even He rested on the 7th day.