Open Heavens September 4, 2008

BIBLE IN A YEAR: 2 Sam 1-4

PLEASURE: A TARE?

MEMORIZE: "But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth" (1 Timothy 5:6)

READ: 1 Timothy 5:5-7

Pleasure must be entertained within the limits of God’s Word or else it becomes a snare. 1 Timothy 5:6 says, “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth”. Some pleasures can kill while others are life-giving. Every Heaven-bound saint must define his or her relationship with pleasure. How do you spend your leisure? Due to poor time management, what some Christians call leisure should have been part of their working hours. If you have not worked so hard, you do not deserve leisure. Rest is necessary only after energy is spent on work. Today, many Christians are going about in the name of rest, leisure or holiday without earning it through hard work. This is one way some have began to idolize leisure. The views of a carnal Christian and a Spirit-filled believer on leisure can be quite different. Your definition of pleasure reveals your true spiritual state, taste and affection for the Master. If you derive joy from any sinful pleasure, it shows you are yet carnal, may be not even born again.

Reading romantic novels and magazines give some youths or students much pleasure. Visiting pornographic sites on the internet is the secret pastime of some professing Christians. If you love such, you have either backslidden or have not been saved. The internet has taken away night prayers from some. Instead of keeping vigil with God, it is now kept with the internet. Yet when trouble strikes they do not run to the internet, but to the God they had no time for. If you can spend three to six hours watching television programmes or home videos, but find it difficult to spend one or two hours alone in God’s presence, leisure has become a tare in your life. It is the weight that might derail your Heaven-bound train. Uproot every tare before it unseats you. According to Hebrews 12:1, besides weights, besetting sins are tares. A besetting sin is a particular area of weakness you have closely shielded from the cleansing blood of Jesus. It is a sin you have vested interest and therefore not prepared to let go. The blood of Jesus can turn any weakness into strength. For this to take place, you must recognize the problem area, confess that weakness by exposing it. Ask God repeatedly to help you deal with it. If you sincerely pray concerning it, and take practical steps to avoid a fall, you would develop a high level resistance to that sin. Any besetting sin in your life is Satan’s means to bring you down whenever you ascend the spiritual ladder. Besetting sins are tares. Don’t cover them. Don’t make excuses for them. Let the blood of Jesus have its work on them so that you can be free.

ACTIONPOINT: It is a crime to go on holidays when you should be at work. David tried it and paid dearly for it. His life was never the same afterwards.