In his book The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis writes, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to 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.”
The Lewis quote above is one of my favorites because it concisely conveys the deceitfulness of sin inhabiting each of our hearts.
From the beginning, in Genesis 3, Satan has questioned God’s goodness by asking, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Satan portrays a God who holds out on us. Satan craftily and subtly suggests that there is wonder, beauty, and fulfillment far greater than the plan that God has for us.
The truth is, God did not create us to hold out on us. He created us to experience a life with Him that is incomparably better than any other offer. My heart needs regular reminders that God has more joy in store for us than we can ask or imagine. Us enjoying life was His idea. Don’t try to replace the irreplicable joy that God wants to give you through trust in Him.
Father, speak to our deceived hearts. Tell us the truth when Satan and our own hearts deceive us into thinking that there is a plan better than life with You. Help us to relinquish our “mud pies in the slum” for “a holiday at the sea” with You.