Battling Sin and Delighting in Treasure

What do you treasure? Those things that we treasure are where we are looking for satisfaction. This is the reason why we sin, we think that it will give us pleasure. This is why we make idols out of the good things that God has created and serve them instead of Him, because we think that they will give us satisfaction. However, there is only one place we can look for satisfaction that will not leave us disappointed:

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things, he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately, forever.

A. W. Tozer

This has huge implications for the Christian life as we battle against sin. Often when we are seeking to put to death a certain sin, we can spend our time focussed on the sin, and get into the mindset that to stop doing this certain sin is to work hard at denying ourselves a certain pleasure. However, when we understand the fullness of satisfaction that is found in knowing Christ, having Him as our delight, and treasuring Him more and more, it radically changes how we think about battling sin. Instead of seeing the battle as trying to deny ourselves a certain pleasure, we ought to see it as a battle for a greater pleasure. Sin keeps us from the all-satisfying pleasure of knowing God. Therefore, we should want to exchange the fleeting pleasures of sin, for the eternal satisfaction of enjoying communion with God through the Lord Jesus. The fight against sin is a fight for joy.