Instant gratifications makes for long term ramifications

Below are two instances of “Instant Gratifications” and the fact that had Adam and Eve and David and Bathsheba thought out the consequences, that eventually “Long-term Ramifications” would catch up with them, they may have done things differently.

To the woman, He said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain, you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." To Adam, He said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." [Genesis 3:16-19 – The NIV Bible]

Adam and Eve ate the fruit and God had to teach them the long term ramifications of instant gratification. We are told in the Bible that after Eve and Adam finished eating the fruit, God came walking in the cool of the afternoon to fellowship with them. Upon hearing God, Adam and Eve hid themselves. Why would one hide themselves if they knew that they had done nothing wrong? However, Adam and Eve knew that there was something wrong and hid themselves. God knew where they were, but wanted them to locate themselves. Immediately the consequences of eating the fruit from the tree, after being told by God not to eat of that particular tree, led to long term ramifications. Eve would experience greatly increased pain in childbirth. Adam would eat food by the sweat of his brow, until he returned to the ground becoming as dust. Through the instant gratification of eating the fruit, long term ramifications were implemented into the lives of Adam and Eve.

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then [a] she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." So David sent this word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house. When David was told, Uriah did not go home, he wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it, he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die." So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David's army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. [Read 2nd Samuel 11:1-22 – The NIV Bible]

The Bible says that in the spring when men go off to war, David stayed at home. As the king of the Israelite army, David should have gone out to battle, but he didn’t. While walking around the roof of the palace, David saw this very beautiful woman, Bathsheba, and inquired about her. Even after David found out that Bathsheba had a husband [Uriah], David sent for Bathsheba and had sexual intercourse with her. She became pregnant and David sent for her husband Uriah to come home so that it would look like Uriah had impregnated his wife and was the father of the unburned child. However, even though Uriah came, he still didn’t make his wife, Bathsheba his priority. He instead chose to stay close to King David and not go home. David was now in trouble. He tried to find ways to send Uriah home to Bathsheba, David’s instant gratification now lead him to consider what to do to get rid of Uriah. David obviously did not look at the long term ramifications. After the birth of the baby, born out of that union the baby did not survive.

So it is with us today, we desire instant gratifications and even though we sometimes know the ramifications we still desire to have our instant gratifications and then pray to God to take away the long term ramifications. So often, like Adam and Eve and David and Bathsheba, we do not realize that there is always a consequence, always a time to pay for instant gratifications that we have gotten ourselves into. There are many, many instances of short term gratifications that lead to long term ramifications. In our desire to have instant gratification, we run to fast food restaurants to satisfy us instantly – never looking at the long term ramifications. We overeat in an instant and then deal with the long term ramifications which can lead to obesity, diabetes, and even death. We may desire to keep up with the “Joneses” without realizing how much the Joneses have paid for their status and shoplift only to find out than there are long term ramifications of stealing, which could result in prison time. We may not eat at all because we desire to stay or be a size zero in our clothes and forget at some point we may have to deal with the long term ramifications of anorexia. In our quest to have smart children, we may have done reverse psychology, by calling them names like ‘stupid’, ‘slow’ and ‘destructive’ to get them to be smarter and then have to deal with the ramifications when our children began to act ‘stupid’, ‘slow’ and ‘destructive’. We may decide to drop out of college and in the long term not be able to get the job we desired. Still again, because of communication challenges, we may give up on a spouse and then be just as miserable with the next person that we have allowed into our lives.

In many, many instances, we may not see the results of instant gratification right away, but know that there is always a long term ramification for an instant gratification. This is not a condemnation, because we know that there is now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus, but this is a word of encouragement, for us to locate ourselves and not become statistics of our instant gratifications. Sometimes, we forget that if we have danced to the tune, we are going to have to pay the piper at some point. We shouldn’t have to wait for God to visit us in the cool of the afternoon to stop our instant gratifications. Remember that today, if you should hear God’s voice, harden not your heart. Let us allow God to help us relinquish our hold on instant gratifications.

I encourage you to examine yourself, check the areas in your life where you have operated in instant gratification, and then ask God for his help. He is a very present help in the time of trouble.

Prayer: Father, in the Name of Your Precious Son Jesus, help me to be honest with You and myself so that I don’t fall into a place of dealing with long term ramifications. Help me, oh Lord to not get caught up in short term gratifications, but to stay focused on you so that I don’t have to pay the price for long term ramifications, amen.

“Happy Thanksgiving” from the Word of Encouragement to you and yours as you celebrate Thanksgiving.

Originally posted November 1, 2010