Temptations v’s Ultimate Happiness

We’re tempted to look at photo’s of women or men. We’re tempted to eat too much. We’re tempted to play computer games for hours on end. We’re tempted to drink too much alcohol. We’re tempted to take drugs that change our perceptions. We’re tempted to seek the praise of other people. We’re tempted to climb the social, political or career ladder of success. We’re tempted to watch films & TV shows, or engage in many other entertainments. We’re tempted to waste our time; our life-time.
Temptation comes in many, many forms.

Guilt following the indulgence of temptation.
We know these activities aren’t any good for us, since they never ever lead to anything more than temporary pleasure or a mere moment of happiness. And in any case, being temptations, they are always followed by hours, days, or even months or years of guilt! And guilt doesn’t make us feel happy, or good about ourselves, so the “pay off” is actually pretty meagre!

Yet we are always tempted to try these same things again, at a later date, even knowing that although the temptation may make us feel something for a moment (indulgent pleasure) but that inevitable guilt & self-loathing are very likely to follow. Afterwards we think things like: “how could I be so weak?”, “Why aren’t I stronger (more heroic) & able to control my urges?”, etc.

Growing tired of the temptation
I found myself wondering what happens when we GROW TIRED of these temptations?
Put another way, what would happen if we looked, as objectively as we can, at these temptations, & rather than denying them, we recognise them, accept them, & sort of “look through” them? What are we ACTUALLY trying to “get to”, via these tempting events? What happens if we acknowledge the “pull” of each temptation; it’s particular appeal? What happens if we take our own pleasure SERIOUSLY? Much, MUCH more “seriously” than we do at present?

John Piper’s book, “Desiring God” has some very interesting & rather startling observations about happiness:

1) Quoting Blaise Pascal [1], Piper observes, ‘...Pascal was not making any moral judgement about this fact [that all men seek happiness, all human activity is to this end]. As far as he was concerned, seeking one’s own happiness was not a sin; it is a simple given in human nature. It is a law of the human heart, as gravity is a law of nature.’

2) Quoting C. S. Lewis [2], ‘We are far too easily pleased.’

3) It is not a bad thing to desire our own good. In fact the great problem of human beings is that they are far too easily pleased. They don’t seek pleasure with nearly the resolve and passion that they should. And so they settle for mud pies of happiness [a quote from C. S. Lewis] instead of infinite delight.’ ... Our mistake lies not in the intensity of our desire for happiness, but in the weakness of it.’
These appear to be pretty radical observations I think. Immediately a hail of protests begins in our minds: “Life is far too serious to make it all about seeking our own happiness!”, “seeking happiness is selfish!”, etc.

Even the Christian backstop thought of, “we’re meant to suffer (for Jesus), not seek our own happiness!” looms over our thinking here! As C. S. Lewis observes in the quote [2] this has to do with the Greek Stoics philosophy, rather than the Biblical Gospel view of our state & desires.

At first glance Piper’s thoughts seem to be alarming observations, I think! But if we pursue the idea to its logical conclusion, we will see what Piper (& others) are actually suggesting. If we ONLY HALF-HEARTEDLY pursue our own happiness as the major goal & purpose of our lives, then we will fall into the trap of meaningless, self-destructive temptations, as outlined at the beginning of this article. This is the stuff that C. S. Lewis was talking about, when he said that we fail to pursue our passions with enough diligence, resolve & determination. Our half-hearted, meandering pursuit of vague goals of happiness & pleasure lead us to indulge ourselves in temptations. The problem is not that our pursuit of our own happiness is “wrong”, or self-indulgent, it is actually that we DON’T pursue our own happiness with enough determination, passion, diligence & concentrated effort. The self-indulgent pleasure-temptations are a result of this vague, un-determined, weak, meandering effort!

What happens if we take our own happiness very, VERY seriously then?
What happens if we install our own happiness as THE most important goal of our lives?

At first glance that seems to be the MOST self-indulgent, sinful, self-seeking purpose possible! But is it?

If we take our own happiness THAT seriously, then we may well look at the simple, trivial, self-destructive temptations that have ensnared us so effectively up until now, in a new light. When we begin to seek our own happiness with MORE (rather than less) power, focus & determination, we will “see” the alluring temptations as so much more trivial annoyances, & as stumbling blocks to our new pursuit of much more intense, meaningful happiness. I think we will actually begin to see these temptations for what they really are: time-wasters, time-consumers, blind alleys, meaningless activities, which actually prevent us from finding THE source of our own happiness. Once we see these temptations in THAT light, we may begin to choose to ignore these more trivial temptation distractions, in favour of the more intense pursuit, for the greater, more significant, more important & meaningful thing we are seeking: our own, ultimate source of happiness.

What happens then?

Swept away are all the “silly” little self-indulgent pleasures, the temptations mentioned, since we ALREADY KNOW that such things never actually deliver the kind of intense, life-affirming happiness we are now “seriously” pursuing.

When we reject the “silly” little temptations, & concentrate on the grand, ultimate pleasure & happiness-inducing things we can pursue, then we start to wonder what is THE greatest, MOST life-affirming, GRANDEST & BEST happiness-getting thing I can EVER have in my life?

At this point we may take a “look” at our hobbies, our interests, our careers, our possessions, our relationships, pretty much everything we possess, have, engage in, etc. So many of them may seem trivial, dead-ends, unfulfilling, meaningless, in light of what may make us UNUTTERABLY, AMAZINGLY HAPPY & CONTENT.

“Fast-forward” to the end of our lives & look back: what do we see? For many of us modern “westerners” we will see thousands of hours of computer game-playing, social media engagement, film & TV watching, in short a whole bunch of ENTERTAINMENT. But does this really make us ultimately happy & contented? Now I’m not against entertainment, after all, it’s fun, right?! I’m simply wondering HOW SIGNIFICANT is it, in an ultimate, end-of-our-lives review situation? Will we “look back” & wish we had done something else instead of watching all that TV &/or playing games, being on FaceBook, etc?

When we start to think about what we REALLY want out of life, & we start to realise that we actually AREN’T happy with the way we are, or do things, here & now, then we are one step away from MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES in our own lives: one step closer to making the all-important, life-affirming decision to pursue our own happiness in MUCH more rigorous, determined, concentrated ways. 

Where will we find THE source of our own happiness?
Where do we “go to”, when we are fixed & determined to find the source of the greatest joy & happiness anyone can seek? Is ultimate happiness to be found in a computer game, a TV show of movie? Perhaps in the acquisition of more money? Or in staying young & beautiful (if you happen to start out like that!) or in some other external-of-our-own-bodies source? If we think about it for a second, we must conclude that most of us (in the Western world) have sought happiness where we have been told it lies: in material possessions. Countless adverts, marketing campaigns & such repeatedly tell us to buy things, & that they will make us happy - but they don’t, only at the split second of purchase; after that we own them, & possessing things doesn’t seem to make us happy, because we almost immediately plan to buy the next product or item! That’s an endless cycle, which is unfulfilling, if we’re honest with ourselves.

There are lots of alternatives to buying objects as a source of happiness. Religions, philosophies, scientific enquiry, discovery, the list goes on & on. Broadly speaking, people seek their happiness outside themselves in the West & inside themselves in the East. Neither brings lasting happiness. So where is ULTIMATE happiness to be found if neither inside or outside of us, ourselves?

If we take our own happiness to its ULTIMATE, LOGICAL CONCLUSION, then (as Piper & others have discovered) that quest ultimately leads us to God; to Jesus the Christ. In the end, our greatest, MOST life-affirming, MOST intense, MOST meaningful, MOST sustainable happiness-inducing “thing” is a personal relationship with the living God who created us. That conclusion is INEVITABLE, but we can only come to that conclusion when we PURSUE OUR OWN HAPPINESS with the intense, logical, rational, objective concentrated conclusion of someone UTTERLY DEDICATED to finding that which makes us MOST & ETERNALLY happy.


There is a good article on the internet about hedonism entitled, "If it feels good, do it" here:

http://www.christchurchcentralsheffield.co.uk/toughquestions/hedonism



[1]
Blaise Pascal quote: “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”

[2]
C. S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory) quote: “If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love- You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance.

The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Jesus; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

[Quotes made bold by me to make a point!]

The lie about our “default position”

I’ve just been listening to a Katherine Ruonala (KR) sermon about James 1:25 entitled “Be doers of the Word”. I always find KR very uplifting, because she focuses attention on the love of God, which we can never, ever hear enough about, most especially because Satan tries to convince us of the opposite, that God is harsh, severe 7 only tolerates us - what a liar the Devil is!

James 1:25 (ANIV) - ‘But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.’

One of KR’s many (brilliant!) points was that we often get confused; we tend to forget what we have learned about ourselves (our new nature in Christ, since becoming a Christian) & we inadvertently fall for Satan’s lie about our supposed “default nature”.

If you’re anything like me, then you believe that you have to work hard to maintain your positive thought life. And when you grow tired, hungry, get distracted, etc, you seem to slow down, you sort of forget who your new nature is, & you wrongly believe that you are settling back into your old, pre-conversion, pre-Christian nature.

If we accept & agree with the lie that we have a “default nature” that is corrupt & bad, then we will behave in accordance with that view. We have to see the TRUTH that our very nature’s have changed. That our “default nature” is, in fact, the nature of Christ Jesus.

Quoting part of KR sermon:
[we might say:] ‘ “Oh God, I don’t feel like people are encountering you when they encounter me all the time” God doesn’t say, “Well, you know that’s just pretty rotten, you need to try harder, you need to get your act together. Sort yourself out.” You say, “Yeah, that’s right”. That’s not the voice of God, that’s the voice of the enemy, that’s trying to convince you that you have a default nature that you have to wrestle against, whereas God says, ‘you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities & powers’ [1]. So don’t buy into the lie that your wrestling this default nature that’s always wanting to be bad, you are not.’

Just to reiterate that point, we don’t have a bad, “default nature”, that we continually have to wrestle against. The FACT is this, we now (since conversion) have a new nature, & not only that, it is the nature of Jesus the Christ - how fantastic is that?! Galatians 2:20 reads, ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.’ Remember that point, ‘I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.’ [2]

That single sentence should convince us that any “default nature” which we had BEFORE we became Christians, which may well have been bad, unholy, rotten, etc, has now gone, is dead, is buried, & will never, ever return. How could it, it’s dead & has been replaced by Christ’s own nature?! The TRUTH is, we NOW (& for ever more!) have the nature of Jesus living within us, by the power of his Holy Spirit.

Once we realise & accept this truth, and when we now get tired, distracted, discouraged, tempted, etc, we need no longer think, “Uh-oh, I’m returning to “type”, my old nature is returning!” Because that is not true. In fact, our “default nature” is now JESUS’ nature!

KR pointed out in her sermon:
‘It’s very easy just to imitate what you’re continually beholding. Therefore, we need to ‘Set our minds (& keep them set) on things above.’ [3]

The point being that we need to be very careful exactly what we CHOOSE to behold! Concentrating on violent films & computer games, being around negative people who seem to suck out the happiness & faith from us, dwelling on the past with regrets, etc, all these things can be the very things we are beholding, which are helping Satan to convince us that our old nature is alive & well & that is our “default nature.” This is a lie.

2 Peter 1:3-4 has some great words to encourage us, & to prove the truth to us:
‘His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.’

We have EVERYTHING we need to live a life pleasing to God & packed full of goodness!

It is through the knowledge of God that we live out a good Christian life. Keeping our minds fixed & focussed on Jesus keeps us in His will, encourages our confidence, encourages our faith, etc.

The promises in the Bible are for US, here & now. It is when we take those promises seriously, AND apply them to our own lives, that the power of the Bible & the power of the Holy Spirit come to bear on us & bring it all alive to us. By applying the promises to ourselves & living within them, we then, ‘participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.’

That’s all pretty fantastic news in my book, how about you?!

Many thanks to Katherine Ruonala.

You can hear/download her sermon’s here:
https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/newday-ministries-audio-pastor/id292205049
Katherine Ruonala Ministries, iTunes web page

Note: You’ll need iTunes to be able to hear these sermons.

You can get some of these sermons via Dropbox & in an mp3 format here:
http://www.katherineruonala.com/?page_id=1897
Katherine Ruonala Ministries, mp3 podcast web page

[1]
Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
An interesting emphasis of the same passage in The Message version reads:
Ephesians 6:12 (MSG)
12 This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.

[2]
Galatians 2:20 (ANIV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

[3]
Colossians 3:2 (ANIV)
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

In this, my latest Bible Cartoon illustration, I made the centurions' face large in the scene so that the viewer could easily see his expression - but does it show surprise, awe, confusion, fear, or what?
Remember that this man was the first person after Jesus died to make any recorded confession of his reaction to the event. The Roman centurion (a man in charge of 100 Roman soldiers) was a trusted military man, trusted that is, by Rome, Caesar & the empire; trusted to support the empire’s goals & ambitions.

Rome was a polytheistic culture at this time, meaning that the average Roman believed in many gods. Isn’t it interesting that this pagan, military man, this Roman centurion, who didn’t know Jesus from Adam (!) seems to have been mightily moved by what he saw: the unusual death of a man who claimed to be the Son of God. There must have been something particular & noteworthy about how Jesus died which lead this man to make the confession, “Surely this was the Son of God!”

One thing Jesus’ life, death (& later resurrection & ascension) shows is that everyone was suddenly able to “get it”. Suddenly anyone & everyone could make the same confession - “Oh, OK, now I get it... Jesus, you really are the Son of God!!!” Just like the Roman centurion did. He may or may not have realised the true importance of what he was saying, but the fact is he was the first ever person to utter that truth after Jesus died.

In the same way we also can now look at the historical fact of Jesus’ death on the cross & make the connection: at last I see, you really are king Jesus, God amongst us.

Well I never knew that!

I’ve just been reading my Bible first thing in the morning, as is my habit. I looked up a reference to Luke 8:4-15, which is Jesus’ parable of the sower, or the four different types of soil. Then I looked in a commentary & found the following entry:

‘These chapters (Luke 5:1-7:17) cover what is often called Jesus' early Galilean ministry. Galilee was Jesus' home province. It was not technically Jewish, as was Judea, but contained a large Jewish population. Most of Jesus' ministry was focussed near the Sea of Galilee, where Peter and James and John had laboured as fishermen.
Strikingly, the Sermon on the Mount, the Transfiguration, and 25 of Jesus' 35 recorded miracles took place in Galilee.
The Jews of Judea, however, looked on Galileans with some contempt. They had a rude accent, and were not considered sophisticated in matters of religion.
This early Galilean ministry took place when Jesus was introducing His teaching and Himself. The later Galilean ministry is associated with hardening opposition.’
(Source: The Teacher's Commentary.)

I didn’t know that Galilee wasn’t wholly Jewish for a start! And that comment above, ‘The Jews of Judea, however, looked on Galileans with some contempt.’ makes sense of some

Scale & Position of Galillee
‘In the time of our Lord, Galilee embraced more than one-third of Western Palestine, extending "from Dan on the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, to the ridges of Carmel and Gilboa on the south, and from the Jordan valley on the east away across the splendid plains of Jezreel and Acre to the shores of the Mediterranean on the west." Palestine was divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, which comprehended the whole northern section of the country (Acts 9:31), and was the largest of the three.’
(Source: Easton's Biblical Dictionary)

I draw your attention to the fact that, ‘Palestine was divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee’ & that Galilee was by far the largest of the three provinces.