In Pursuit of Pleasure – Are You Leaving God Behind?

Are you looking for happiness and pleasure, or are you looking for God? Are you seeking to satisfy your flesh, or are you seeking to satisfy the will of the Lord? Are you living to achieve your dreams, or are you living to pursue God’s calling on your life? These may be difficult questions to consider, but there is a question much more challenging than this one. Are you willing to lay aside your desire for happiness, and your pursuit of pleasure, and the satisfaction of your flesh, and the dreams that you have clung to, to relentlessly, emphatically, passionately pursue the Lord and His purpose for your life? Moses, who led the children of Israel out of horrific bondage in Egypt, forsook his own pleasure to fulfill the Lord’s calling on his life to deliver the people. Though Jewish, he had been adopted into Pharaoh’s family and could have had an amazing life of pleasure and luxury in the eyes of the world. But he did not seek to live a life of happiness and pleasure; he sought to live for the Lord.

Heb 11:23  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. 
Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 
Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 

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The world and culture in which we live are focused relentlessly on loving and pleasing ourselves, on finding happiness, on accumulating wealth, on decorating our houses to the utmost, on filling up our bank accounts to overflowing, on building up our resumes to get the best possible jobs and climb the world’s corporate ladders, to look as good as we possibly can on the outside, and to fall asleep in front of our televisions with our remote controls in our hands as we flip from channel to channel of our lives to find the most comfortable, the most secure, the most pleasurable lives we possibly can and leave behind us legacies of happily ever afters and big inheritances for our loved ones if we’re still speaking to them. And off we go to wherever we go next – heaven or hell, for eternity. Many of us even sit every Sunday on beautifully polished antique church pews with our Bibles clutched in our well manicured hands looking forward to our after-church all-you-can-eat buffets figuring we’ve paid our dues to God for the week and now we can hurry back to our next golf games, meetings with investments advisers, and take our grandchildren on endless shopping sprees without ever giving thought to sitting them down and sharing the Gospel with them. Once in a while we manage to squeeze a quick prayer into our schedules, a brief conversation about the new pastor at the church we attend, and even a quickly passing thought about God.

Moses might not have left this earth with his bucket list all neatly checked off as a result of living his life to satisfy his lusts and longings, but he lived an indescribably extraordinary life because he did what we are all called to do. He lived for the Lord.

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves this question. Are we living our lives in pursuit of happiness, or are we living our lives in pursuit of God? At the end of the day, when we all stand before the Lord and give account of our lives, we will undoubtedly find our answer. But why wait until that day comes? Why not begin this very day to repent of our sins, to place our trust in Christ the Lord who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, to commit to live according to the will and ways of the Lord, and to open our Bibles and begin to live the way we were intended. For the glory of the Lord. The pleasures of this world, which are only temporal, will give us temporary satisfaction. But there is no greater, and everlasting, joy than a life grounded in faith in Christ Jesus and lived utterly for the Lord God almighty, our beloved Father in heaven whose loves goes on for eternity. 

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