Walking with the Wise #97: Too Easily Pleased

“Those of crooked heart are an abomination to the LORD,
but those of blameless ways are His delight.”
—Proverbs 11:20

There are several things that God considers to be an abomination: homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13), bestiality (Leviticus 18:23), idolatry (Deuteronomy 7:25; 13:12-14; 17:2-4; 32:16), careless worship (Deuteronomy 17:1), sacrificing one’s child (Deuteronomy 18:10), fortune telling (Deuteronomy 18:10), necromancy (Deuteronomy 18:11), transvestitism (Deuteronomy 22:5), and offering money obtained by sinful practices to God (Deuteronomy 23:18)—just to name a few.

Another abomination is a crooked heart, i.e. a heart that is bent, or focused on doing evil. Whenever someone continually and perpetually sets their heart to do that which God has declared to be sin, their heart is crooked. The Hebrew word for abomination is towabat, which carries the idea of being loathsome, detestable, and abhorrent. God hates those with a crooked heart, because they are rejecting the best for that which is incredibly less. Like a child holding on to a common rock rather than the pearl or diamond that has been offered to them. It angers God, because what they are holding on to and valuing (i.e. wickedness) is far less than what God is offering them (life in Him). C.S. Lewis captured the essence of this thought when he wrote,

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered 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”—C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.

Don’t be easily pleased by the fleeting pleasures of sin, live the life God has intended and purchased for you—made available through the cross of Jesus Christ. Find your satisfaction in the risen Savior, not sin or self. Let God become your all in all and walk in His paths so that His name might resound through you and your joy may shine and thrive in Him. Amen.