“He who loves pleasure will be a poor man; He who loves wine and oil will not be rich.” (‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭21:17‬)

     Pleasure is the business and province of the soul. He who loves pleasure is he who loves the appetites of his soul. And for those who love the appetites of their soul, they will not store up for themselves treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:20). Their bank account in heaven will remain empty. They will live “the good life” in this season and tIme, but they will be like those who the gospel of John refers to as those who “love their life”, who are those who forfeit the really good life to come for what they perceive is the good life now.

     It is not without reason that it is said that good things come to those who wait. For those who are unable or unwilling to delay their soulish gratification for something better to come, in the end, they will be a poor man. “Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it.” (John 12:25). He who loves the fat of this land, being the wine and oil of this world, will not be rich in the land of the kingdom. For he will have pursued pleasure at the expense of treasure. For as with any investment, it takes sacrifice now for what it later yields.

     For those who are not willing to lay their lives down as a “living sacrifice” now (Romans 12:1) will not reap the 100-fold return that the Lord promises when He says that for God “one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). What those who forfeit what pleasure their souls may enjoy in one day of this life in oder to produce the fruit of the Spirit, they will get to enjoy for a thousand years in the next, and every thousand years in the next will be as a single day. For no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor heart has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).