Why Do We Feel Guilty About Pleasure If God Wants Us to Have Joy?

General Faith
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Why Do We Feel Guilty About Pleasure If God Wants Us to Have Joy?

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Christians often wrestle with the tension between enjoying life’s pleasures and fearing that doing so makes us less holy. Why does joy sometimes feel like guilt, even when Scripture reminds us that God delights in our joy?
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From the very beginning, God created a world filled with beauty, abundance, and good things to enjoy. Food, relationships, art, music, nature—these are all reflections of His creativity and kindness. Yet many believers admit that when they actually enjoy those gifts, they feel a nagging sense of guilt.

This tension is not new. Throughout church history, different traditions have approached pleasure in very different ways. Some movements have emphasized self-denial, fasting, and separation from worldly joys as a path to holiness. Others have embraced the goodness of God’s creation and argued that gratitude, not guilt, should mark our response to His blessings.

The Bible itself seems to hold both realities in tension: warnings against indulgence, idolatry, and worldliness—but also calls to rejoice, give thanks, and celebrate God’s good gifts. Ecclesiastes 3:13 says that “everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.” At the same time, passages like 1 John 2:15 warn against loving the world or the things in it.

So where do we draw the line? Why do so many Christians instinctively feel guilty about rest, laughter, or enjoyment—even though Jesus promised us “life to the full” (John 10:10)? And how can we discern the difference between selfish pleasure that pulls us away from God and true joy that honors Him?

This raises a deeper question about how we view God Himself: is He a harsh taskmaster waiting to punish us for enjoying too much, or a loving Father who delights to see His children enjoy His gifts?

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Possible because amid all the beauty, the enjoyment of company etc we forget that the enjoyment, the pleasure is a gift from God for which we should say thank you.

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One should be cautious to differentiate between consumptive self-stimulating pleasures and those feelings of joy and rejoicing that are often directed outwards. Feelings can be deceptive.

Jer_17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Feeling guilty can be the result of external manipulation or a result of internal assessment that one has fallen short of what one expected of himself.

The feeling of guilt may be a measure of being bullied or having unrealistic expectation. One has to be careful with feelings. It is perhaps better to make assessments and decisions based on truth and logic.

Since we are supposed to be in a process of maturing in faith and transitioning from walking in the flesh to walking by the Spirit, one should expect that we are incomplete.and will fail and fall short occasionally.

Guilt can be useful if it spurs us on. If we are crippled by guilt, it is not very helpful.Those with a more legalistic view may be more prone to feeling guilty similar to someone who failed to keep the law.

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I haven’t yet listened to what was mentioned in the OP. But my initial thought when reading the thread title (and I intend to come back later to do my due diligence and engage more thoroughly) is that we shouldn’t conflate pleasure and joy. Joy and pleasure aren’t identical. And confusing the two is very dangerous.

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I used to feel guilt after taking a day off for rest and relaxation. I would feel like I wasn’t doing enough. And then would force myself to work harder or more hours to make up for it. Who has done the same? Not sure exactly how I learned to loosen up, I think it was God’s grace helping me let go of all those expectations I put on myself.