Feb 223 min read

Is FOMO Killing Your Joy?

Woman with her head in her hands with fear and anxiety

It jacked us up in the Garden of Eden and it is jacking us up today.

The fear of missing out (FOMO).

But why would The Master of the Universe give us the capacity to experience pleasure then deny us the opportunities to experience pleasure?

He doesn't.

And just a sidenote... God is not afraid of our questions.

“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love. “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. ~John 15:9-15, The Message Bible

If you and I truly desire to live immersed in the joy of our Savior written in John 15, we have to deal with how we manage pleasure.

The Pleasure Principle

Janet Jackson sung about it. Sigmund Freud wrote about it. Let's talk about it.

It was the misconception that something pleasurable was being denied in the Garden of Eden that got us into this mess in the first place!

It's the Pleasure Principle.

The fear of missing out.

Non-compliance for the sake of immediate gratification.

Sacrificing a lifetime of living in the love of God for a fix, a high, a short-lived feel-good moment.

The chocolate to satisfy cravings.

The drug to make us high.

The sex outside of marriage to make us feel good.

The random spending to make us look good.

Immediate, fleeting gratification.

But why?

Why are we not stronger?

Why are not more patient?

Why do we resist?

FOMO

Fear of missing out is keeping us from walking the path of life with Christ outside of which there is no greater pleasure.

Just because we have been saved by Christ doesn't mean we walk with Him. Obedience determines proximity.

The world has taken true pleasure out of context, convincing us that obedience denies us pleasure when it its proper context - pleasure is intensified. We are satisfied beyond our senses through a level of pleasure that only dwelling, resting, abiding in God's love can provide.

It's called joy.

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. ~Psalm 16:11, New International Version

Joy. Eternal pleasure.

So, do you want a quick fix, or forevermore?

Six psalms in the bible (including Psalm 16), are titled "A Michtam (golden) of David". Noted by scholars as the Golden Psalms, they sing of an assurance of intimate and ultimate safety and joy. Focusing heavily attaining pure pleasure and how it is hidden in the presence of our God, theologian Charles Spurgeon calls Psalms 16 the Psalm of the Precious Secret.

So, what's the secret?

A Precious Secret

Keep and protect me, O God, for in You I have found refuge, and in You do I put my trust and hide myself. I say to the Lord, You are my Lord; I have no good beside or beyond You. ~Psalms 16:1-2, Amplified Bible

There is an inner Eden, a hidden place of hope and love and trust in God, where you can experience his joy now and forever. But the choice is yours.

And there's something else...

Psalms 16 is also a Messianic Psalm, with David as a type of Christ speaking the language of Christ.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful (holy) one see decay. ~Psalms 16:9-10 NIV

It is the same Jesus of John 15 inviting us to dwell with Him in the Father's love:

If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love. I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing. ~John 15:10-11 AMP

Do you believe God desires that we have no pleasure?

I don't.

Joy is mine in the right context.

I don't want to miss out on a single thing God has me so I will keep trying to do what it takes to get what I want. Obey.

What do you want?