It Sure Feels Good

    Feel good. It seems so benign; what could possibly be wrong with feeing good? Most of us want to feel good and there is nothing wrong with being pain free. However, I'm not referring to feel good in that manner but enjoying pleasure. Contentment is a feeling as well but those who seek to feel good are looking for something beyond that. For me, contentment is my pleasure. If things are copacetic, I am  a happy camper. I enjoy being content!
    My friend, the other night, who had a history of marijuana usage, said, "marijuana feels good." I don't know that feeling and never want to! I have always felt good without things to make me feel that way. Why so? Contentment is my feel good.

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. ... (1 Tim 6:6-11; ESV).

     I am content because God makes me content. I need nothing else, except perhaps the love of others, to remain content. We should be content with food and clothing. I remember when I had very little of either. God has blessed me now with both, and what more things of the world would make me more content? I like other "necessities", but are they really necessary. I like nice cars but the Amish are content with mere buggies. My own father was content owning only a mule! Things don't make people feel good; they are abstractions to real contentment.
     Those in third world countries who have little food and clothing use opioids, mushrooms, peyote, and things like marijuana to mask their lack of necessities. Perhaps I can understand their dependence on inebriants to feel better, them surely seldom feeling good. Americans, because we are blessed, should not need things to make us feel good. For us, harmful desires can plunge people into ruin and destruction. Americans don't need methadone, cocaine,  class II narcotics, nor marijuana to be content. They desire those somatic ingredients to feel good. My friend admitted that. Others say, I need my _______ (insert drug of choice). Furthermore, no one needs alcohol to feel good!
     My friend looked back at the time he enjoyed marijuana. He is a Christian, and one thing we should have learned is, don't look back!

And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (Gen 19:25-26)

    God overthrew the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps to visualize them, one need only look at Las Vegas and Hollywood. All those cities are as in the days of Noah. They are dens of iniquity. Lot's wife, although saved from destruction, looked back at those two cities which were burning with fire and brimstone. Why did God turn Lot's wife into a pillar of salt? Because she looked back. What do you suppose was on her mind? Pleasure - memories of feeling good, memories of lust, memories of possessions, etc. My bet is that before she had pleasure; she felt good and already recalled the pleasures of sin.

     Satan wants Christians to look back at what was before. Many look back at bad habits, fornication, sinful friends, lustful entertainment, drug usage and many other things. That is dangerous! Returning to feel good days can be disastrous. Somehow I always return to original sin for wisdom because there is nothing new under the sun. In the Garden was contentment: The Law of God was liberty to be  content. Then, Adam and Eve were tempted and they ate of the forbidden fruit. The fruit was some type of pleasure, and they felt good for a short time until guilt overwhelmed them. Thankfully the Word was there to cover their shame. Feeling good if for wrong reasons is shameful!

     Adam and Eve were punished by God and expelled from the Garden of Eden. Ironically, they did not look back to when they truly felt good. They went into the world where contentment must be worked for - by the sweat of his face (Gen 3:19). In the world, mankind is more in pursuit of pleasure than contentment. People always look for what makes them feel good.

     People often say, "I feel good about myself!" How can we? We are all sinners. We should never feel good about ourselves but feel blessed in spite of ourselves! My friend used marijuana when he was young to feel good. He no longer does because he has the Holy Spirit inside to make him feel good.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezek 36:26-27; ESV)

     That new spirit is a new attitude with new desires. Christians come to desire contentment and the pursuit of pleasure is removed. They are not to look back at the twin cities of shame but look forward to the Kingdom of God!
     Why did Adam and Eve not look back at the Garden of Eden? Because they were looking forward to Paradise. God promised that to Adam in five-and-one-half days, according to sacred literature. That is 5500 years or during the sixth day. On the seventh day - Jesus's millennial reign - God and Adam will rest again, then rest forever on the eighth day - eternity!
     Feeling good is temporal. Contentment is eternal. Those who deny eternity cannot be content. They can only put on a veil to disguise dismay. Pleasure disguises contentment. It is a veil over the face of sinners which blind them from sobriety. Sobriety, of course, is of clear mind, but also without inebriants. Insobriety and lack of vigilance leads to destruction:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8).

     As with Lot's wife, looking back at good times wherein there was sinful pleasure is recalling a period when your very soul was in jeopardy. Think about it: when people are high on marijuana, they expose themselves to the vicious lion seeking to devour! Think about it: when you recall fornication, you expose yourself to destruction. Spiritually, you just may turn into a pillar of salt as your heart hardens! Don't look back; feeling good is just not worth it, and that desire to feel good was mankind's problem from the start:

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:16)

     Looking back at what feels good, looks good, and embellishes people are from the law of sin which is the lawlessness of the world.
     Those are my thoughts. I know what looking back is for I have looked back. I know why I looked back as well; it's because sin feels good.  Although short-lived, we all know that it does or we wouldn't do them or look back at the pleasure as appealing. If the Devil can't devour by tempting, he will devour by revisiting sinful memories.
     We can feel good, but it's not by pleasure. We can all feel good because of the hope of salvation (Lam 3:26). I am blessed because I never felt good because of marijuana or any other drugs. Neither did alcohol ever make me feel good. I feel good because God prevented me from ever having those pleasures.