Are reading the Bible, praying, and participating in worship pleasant to you? Or are they duties that you feel you must do even though you find no pleasure in doing them?

We human beings are joy (or pleasure) driven. Our will will follow what our heart delights in. Therefore, whatever we engage in, if we do not find joy in it, we will eventually stop. And it cannot be even that there is only a promise of joy in the future. Unless we find pleasure in it now, we won’t last very long.

For example, I have been running at the gym for the last year or so. Currently, I run about 10 miles a week – that’s about 3 or 4 miles every other day. And I do find pleasure in running. No, I do not get the runner’s high as some people do, but my mind clears up and my body feels better when I run. However, when I first started running, there was no pleasure in it. I dreaded running. But I knew it would be good for me. So I kept on until I actually started enjoying it, although there are moments still now when I do not want to run…

The spiritual discipline (meditating, praying, worshipping) is similar. You may have been told initially that it would be good for you. So you engaged in it but you did not last long because you found no pleasure in it. A discipline without pleasure will take us only so far…  And for many Christians, rather than being a source of pleasure, it has become a source of guilt and regret.

“Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;

sing to his name, for it is pleasant!”

Psalm 35:3

Here the psalmist is exhorting the people to praise the Lord not only because it is good for them but because it is pleasant! It will give them pleasure if they will truly praise the Lord!

It is pleasant to spend time with the Lord. It is pleasant to open up the Bible and hear what God has to say to me each morning. It is pleasant to take a walk while praying about what He just told me and then to tell him about my worries and concerns.

Would you ask God to make it pleasurable to you to engage in spiritual activities? And then engage in it until you find pleasure in it. The Lord is the source of all good pleasures of life!

PH