Devotions from Pure Pleasure by Gary Thomas

 Jesus said “I came so that they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” ( The message translation)

“The good things of this earth, created by God to be received with thanksgiving and praise- things such as friendship, good food and fine drinks, laughter, sex, and family life- can be redeemed to season our life and faith in many positive ways.”  We all have need for spiritual disciplines, self-denial, detachment etc but we also need to embrace pleasure as a way to celebrate God and the life He has given us.  It becomes a spiritual sickness when we denounce pleasure simply because it feels pleasurable. As Christians Satan can trap us with our compulsions in which we take pride for working so hard and seeing enjoyment as weakness or “giving in”  Sometimes the most spiritual thing to do when you are tired is to take a  nap rather than push on and on. We don’t honor Him when we deny ourselves everything He created to bring us pleasure. Julian of Norwich tells us to let God win us over with His joy, pleasure, and friendship, and then we will be that much less vulnerable to being fooled by the counterfeit pleasure of sin. 
We must not lose our zeal for outreach to poor etc but in the same way, for the sake of honoring God, we shouldn’t neglect celebrating His goodness and faithfulness. Let us remember as we go about our day today that our pleasure brings pleasure to God