COMFORT
Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare....Whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never become rich.
---Proverbs 20:13, 21:17
A second form or inordinate desire is an inordinate love of physical pleasure and comfort. The pleasure described is the joy that comes from the satisfaction of physical wants. Wine, of course heightens spirits and oil was used in cosmetics and indicates beauty and sensual comfort. The Bible isn't against pleasure per se. Wine gladdens the heart of man and oil makes the face shine (Psalms 104:15) And the overlove of comfort is no more wrong than the overlove of discomfort. Sleeping when you should work (20:13) and working when you should be resting (Psalm 127:2) are both wrong.
Yet if we become 'lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:4), it leads to disaster---not only economic, but also emotional and spiritual. At one level, addiction to comfort can make people detached, avoiding entanglements with people in order to protect their own time and convenience. It can also lead to literal addictions to substances and sexual practices. Idolatry takes many forms, and it is the wise man or woman who can locate and destroy anything usurping God's place.
What pleasures are perhaps too important to you---not just giving comfort but giving you a consolation only God should give?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you left the unimaginable comforts of heaven for a life of hardship on earth for me. Someday I will live in that same unimaginably glorious world. Until then, however, let me not set my heart on thrills, sensations, and comforts but follow in your footsteps. Amen.
----Timothy Keller, God's Wisdom for Navigating Life, page 97
Sunday, April 15, 2018
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