Living the life God intended

I haven’t blogged in a while as I was holidaying overseas in China and Hong Kong and then had surgery. May was pretty full on but I am now in recovery mode. My holiday in China was great – I enjoyed seeing new sights, walking on the Great Wall, taking a short boat cruise and seeing amazing shows. But what struck me most (other than there is no church buildings) is that there doesn’t seem to be time to enjoy life. For the locals in the cities, it is all about work and getting ahead. Even for their children, there seems to be no time fo play after about three years old.

The scripture in 1 Timothy 6:17b tells me that our trust should be in God Who richly gives us all we need for enjoyment. In part a of that verse it tells the rich people not to be proud or trust in their money. God gave us all things in the earth to enjoy. What does enjoy mean? In the dictionary it means to take delight or pleasure in, or, possess and benefit from. We need to take pleasure in things that God gives us in life.

If we spend all our time working and never take pleasure in life, we will store up our finances and someone else will take pleasure in it.

This can be further illustrated in the parable in Luke 12: 15 to 21. This is the story of a wealthy farmer who just kept working. He was so rich that he didn’t have anywhere to store the produce. So he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. The parable then goes on to say that the man died that night and then who was going to get everything. Jesus then went on to say that we need to build a rich relationship with God.

So how do we enjoy ourselves and build a rich relationship with God. What does God require of us? To do right, love mercy and walk humbly with God. It is all about our relationship with God and with others. So let’s look at some scenarios:

1. What if we stopped being so busy doing on Saturday and had coffee with a friend.

2. What if we stopped preparing a three course dinner and had a picnic with our spouse, family or friends.

3. What if we stopped being so busy and went to the beach or for a bush walk.

4. What if we valued people over things.

5. What if we stopped accumulating things and started accumulating friends.

There are many more scenarios we could think of but God wants us to enjoy ourselves and have rich relationships with Him and people and not money and things.

This week, like me, think of some way we could do this because God wants us living an enjoyable life the way that He intended. Bless you heaps.⭐️