The Truth About the Pleasure of Sin

I like to eat. Like, really like to eat. My favorite food lately is chicken wings. When I am making them I literally feel excitement. While they are baking I have a big smile on my face. They say the way to a man’s heart is food. Well, the way to my heart is probably chicken wings.

Pretty often chicken wings happen on Sunday or Wednesday nights when we get home so late that I don’t feel like cooking an actual supper. Sometimes by the time they are ready to eat it’s almost 10 o’clock. This doesn’t stop me.

I get a big plate, fill it with wings, and dig in.

Yum.

I love this.

When they’re all gone I sit back with my hand on my stomach and say the same thing every time, “Why did you let me eat so much so late at night?”

My stomach will hurt. And as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep it will ache with pain. When I wake up my stomach will feel like a brick. It hurts so much.

I think to myself, “No more. I am not eating that late at night anymore.”

But what happens a couple of days later? (Yes, I eat wings that often.)

Anyway, what happens? I am hungry for wings. Do I remember the pain I was in the last time I did this? Nope. I remember the satisfaction I got in that moment of eating my delicious wings. Or, I should say, from eating my huge pile of delicious wings.

Not long after I find myself repeating that silly scenario of wondering why I keep doing that and dealing with the pain it leaves me in.

Why? Why can’t I think about the pain that comes after over indulging? Because I remember the pleasure it brought instead.

The same goes for our sin. Sin hurts us over and over and over again. Every time it hurts. But when we think of that pet sin that we have (we all have one) we don’t think about the hurt that it brings. We think about the pleasure we get in that moment of indulgence.

After all, there is pleasure in sin for a season. And we are blinded by that pleasure.

It is only after we indulge that we start to remember that pain. We start to think, “Why do I keep doing this?” We tell ourselves no more. We say we are not doing that again.

Until that moment of weakness comes again. We remember the pleasure again. And here, we can be held captive for all our lives. We can get caught in this painful cycle.

How do we get out? Go back to where it starts: the thought.

Stop thinking about how much you like it. Remember that it causes pain. Control your thoughts. More importantly, even, what are God’s thoughts on it. Think on that instead of the pleasure you get for that short moment.

When the thought enters your mind kick it out! Purposely think on something else. Get yourself busy. Don’t let yourself dwell on it.

I don’t know what you are struggling with right now. I don’t know what thoughts you need to kick out of your mind: doubt, fear, covetousness, lust, gluttony, envy, anger, etc. Control your thoughts and you will begin to break that vicious, painful cycle of sin that the Devil would love for you to stay bound to.

So, the truth about the pleasures of sin: it leads to pain and hurt. The pleasure you feel in that moment cannot possibly be worth the pain it will bring in the end. Remember the truth about the pleasure of sin.

This post is linked up to the Grace and Truth Link Up