If there is a lie at the heart of every single sin, it has to be the one going all the way back to the Garden. There, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to believe God was holding out on them. He tempted them to break God’s law with the lure of pleasure. If we are going to fight that same temptation, we have to see the lie for what it is. The quote below is from CS Lewis’ book The Srewtape Letters. Screwtape, a demon and tempter, gives demonic advice to another tempter:
“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable.”
Never forget that pleasure, ALL PLEASURE, comes from God! If we stop believing the lie of the enemy, “at [God’s] right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11b).
Prayer prompt: Lord, I don’t know why You would include me in the pleasure of Your presence, but thank You!