Pleasure

I recently went to a ‘cutting-edge’ seminar taught by a doctor of psychology on Pornography and its effect on the human brain.  The specific point I want to pull from that seminar is this; it is proven that by the over-stimulation of the ‘Dopamine Cycle’  (how we experience pleasure), it eventually becomes unable (or at least far less effective) of experiencing pleasure, regardless of the stimuli.  By God’s will and design our bodies were certainly meant to experience pleasure, but only in moderation (and He defines ‘moderation’).  Therefore, if our brains are ‘burned out’ from viewing porn we can no longer experience joy … no matter if it is from a promotion at work, our child taking their first step, lying with our spouse, eating a delicious meal, even porn itself … all pleasure begins to fade; we lose our ability.  Incidentally, isn’t amazing at how those among us who have been overrun by a besetting sin say they feel ‘dead to God’ or in a ‘spiritual desert’?  Now please hear me, not all spiritual deserts are caused by habitual sin, but I would say all habitual sin causes spiritual deserts.  This is not mysterious.  In a very real sense, to give ourselves over to lust is to hollow ourselves out; leaving us joyless and unable to worship Christ.  We cannot serve two masters “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”

This is modern science.  These are recent findings from brain scans, clinical analysis, observation, testing, etc.

But read the words of my dearest brother (who died 300 years ago), the Puritan, Matthew Henry.  Specifically he is commenting on Job’s claim that “I made a covenant with his eyes, why then should I look upon a maid?”

“He made a covenant with his eyes, made this bargain with them, that he would allow them the pleasure of beholding the light of the sun and the glory of God shining in the visible creation, provided they would never fasten upon any object that might occasion any impure imaginations, much less any impure desires, in his mind …”

Note Henry’s choice of words, ‘… the PLEASURE of beholding the … glory of God ...”

I am a broken, sinful, lustful man.  This is not hyperbole; I examine myself daily.  In this instance I am the absolute reverse of Paul’s words in 1 Cor 4:4 in that I AM conscious of my sin and I stand before God guilty; desperately and wholly in need of Christ.  (Note, Paul was NOT saying he was not a sinner; I am only borrowing his choice of words, not his intent).  Yet I have made a covenant with my eyes and it is good and right to do so.  Even knowing our sinfulness and covenant-breaking flesh, God tells us to enter in to covenants in this life.  But how do I ever hope to keep this covenant?  By and through a covenant-keeping God.  I draw near to God and He watches over me.  I endeavor to continually be in communion with Him; repenting, praising, acknowledging Him in all I see; moment by moment.  But further, I practice; I train; I look away; I consciously remind myself that the ‘beautiful young maiden’ is not mine, she is not intended for me, she will not satisfy my sweetest and purest longings for feminine interaction, it is fantasy and not real, it is deceit and not truth.  Further, I think about my wife; that she is who God sees as my earthly feminine satisfaction, she is the only one who I have a covenant with.  She is the only one He sees for me.  Period.  That as He looks upon her He sees her as His gift to me, perfectly suited to fulfill the observation, “It is not good for man to be alone”.  I train myself to align myself with how God views my wife.  She is my feminine satisfaction and there is none other.

The fear of being hollowed out is profound in my life.  I’ve been there.  The fear of losing joy is halting.  I’ve known it.  So in saying this I know my training can never end; resisting the lust of my Flesh is continual.  I truly believe it is more accurate to say the definition of Sanctification is not that I sin less and less as I mature in Him, but that I repent more and more; and that my sanctification is not measured in my performance but in my heightened sensitivity to the depth of my sin and the Holiness of God.  My Flesh will never and can never be reformed; so I must train, practice, and remain vigilant at aligning myself with the heart of God.  “Sin is crouching at [my] door …”, and as my dear friend and mentor said, “Yes, and it’s on the inside!”.

I am certainly not holding myself up as a model!  But i do believe there is worth in encouraging 'one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.'