Enjoying Life and Boundaries

I discussed enjoying life in the last post and in this post I want to expand on how we can enjoy life and not complain.

How do we really enjoy life?  Here is one way:

Obey God’s commands – Deuterononmy 4:40

If you obey all the laws and commands that I will give you today, all will be well with you and your children. Then you will enjoy a long life in the land the LORD your God is giving you for all time. – NLT

John 14:23-24 23 Jesus replied: If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them. 24 But anyone who doesn’t love me won’t obey me. What they have heard me say doesn’t really come from me, but from the Father who sent me. – CEV

To really enjoy life you need to know your boundaries. God’s commands give us a boundary. That way we know where we can and cannot go and what we can and cannot do. To know what your boundaries are, is to know freedom. Do you understand that – let me say it again – to know what your boundaries are, is to know freedom.

God is big on giving man freedom and boundaries- freedom to manage what He has entrusted to us.  God has given us the boundaries to protect us from evil. The boundaries in the Garden of Eden were not set for the purpose of limiting Adam but to let him know what his freedom was. Adam got into trouble when he questioned those boundaries and so do we. God had provided everything Adam would need for life. He  entrusted Adam with responsibility to manage and work the Garden. God gave him freedom in that freedom came responsibility. God made us to express ourselves creatively through our work and he gave Adam that opportunity.

Each of us, in order to really be happy, must have freedom and boundaries in our  lives. Whenever you are hired for a job, you must have the freedom to make certain decisions in order to enjoy the job and be effective at it. You must have the authority to manage things within your area of expertise. You must also have limits within your area of responsibility. You need to know where those limits are and stay within them and in doing so will be enjoying what is it you do and you will be effective at what you do. The boundaries make you more effective.  In then making the connection back to God we need to understand that both freedom and boundaries are always under the umbrella of God’s authority in our lives and when we live in them we are able to enjoy life and be effective in it.

So to enjoy life,what we need to do is  live freely in the boundaries that God gives us. To know those boundaries you must know his Word and that is why imperative that you read the Word of God to learn what your boundaries are and to find the freedom that comes in the Word of God.  Are you doing that?  Do you know the boundaries that God gives in His Word to give us freedom?

When you know who God is and what His commands are, it make a difference in life.  When you know where He has set the boundaries then it really should keep you from complaining. All of this should also help you to really enjoy all you have been blessed with in this life but does it?

So what do you think today?  Do you think that boundaries give you freedom?   Do you think complainers (us) are out of God’s boundaries when we complain?

Enjoying Life

I have been refreshed by my Christmas break from blogging.  I have enjoyed all my family and it has been awesome but now I am back and ready to blog away.  I pray you have had a great Christmas!

One of the things I hate to hear in life is complaining. It drives me crazy!  There are some people complain constantly and there is nothing ever right in their lives. They are many times people people who always have some sort of drama happening. There is always someone sick in their family or there is always a stressful situation going on at work with others around them, there is always something. The problem that I see here with these people is they do not realize that everyone has sick people in their families or stressful situations going on at work or around them. The fail to realize that there is always something for everyone. They fail to understand this and they miss out and fail to enjoy the life that they have been blessed with because their focus is all wrong.

As we start a New Year, I want to encourage you begin to enjoy your life. If you already enjoy it – I want you to enjoy it some more and if you do not enjoy it – I want you to see that it is a spiritual thing to enjoy life!

Let us begin this by looking at 1 Timothy 6:17, Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. -NAS

Do you see the word enjoy there at the end of the verse? Here is what enjoy means – taking pleasure or satisfaction in something.

In life we sometimes get stuck in faulty thinking and many times we always think we will really enjoy ourselves when…I turn 18, when I turn 21, when I turn 30, when I retire, when I make enough money, when I can afford that new car, when I can get that job, when I get that promotion, when I get married, when I have kids, when the kids move out, when I get the really good job and make a lot of money, when everything is perfect, when I….

We all have a tendency to think that with money, age, status, retirement, good health, fame, or a nice car will be that one thing that will brings us to the point where we will really then begin to enjoy life. So in many ways we think that life will be enjoyable later and think we really have nothing to celebrate in life now. We think things like,”There is nothing in my life that I can celebrate now but later I will be able to”. For many, this faulty thinking follows them through life.

Sometime the faulty thinking leads them down this line of thinking.  They think that enjoyment of life is sinful or wrong because we always have to be dead serious. They think that there can be no enjoyment in the church or life because that is wrong because Jesus never really enjoyed himself.

People when you talk about enjoying life on a daily basis ask questions like: Can you really enjoy everything?  Is everyday a celebration? Can everyday be a party?

Look at these verses from Ecclesiastes from a variety of versions and see what they say about the enjoying of life.

Ec 2:24 – Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. – NKJV

Ec 2:25 – For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? – NLT

Ec 3:12 – So I concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they can. – NLT

Ec 3:13 – And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. -NLT

Ec 3:22 – We were meant to enjoy our work, and that’s the best thing we can do. We can never know the future. -CEV

Ec 5:18 – Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. – NKJV

Ec 7:14 – On a good day, enjoy yourself; On a bad day, examine your conscience…. – Message

I will spend more time this week talking about what it means to enjoy life but for now let me ask you these questions:

What are two things that you really enjoy in life?  Does complaining drive you crazy?  Have you ever been stuck in the  faulty thinking of “When I”?

Too Serious or Enjoying Life?

We have been looking at laughing and smiling this week as well as at this verse:

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

Here is the first thing I want to stress:  Do not take yourself too seriously, but take God very seriously!  Laugh at yourself – I have done so many silly things to laugh at through the years – I can either laugh at myself or be depressed and being depressed is not an option.   Never take yourself too serious because it really is a silly to do so and people will be pushed away by it.

Ask yourself this:  would you want to be your friend?  Are you someone that others want to be around?  Many people take themselves too seriously and honestly are no fun to be around. 

God is serious business but he is a God who laughs.  What is your picture of God?  Is he some Old guy up in heaven with rolled up newspaper waiting to slap you like a fly when you get out of line or is he a God who laughs, loves, and wants the same for his people?  Do not misunderstand – God is Holy, Righteous and Just and also a God of Joy or enjoyment.

Something else in this whole discussion is too find enjoyment in life  and do it  N.O.W. (No Opportunity Wasted).  You’re never too old or too young to live life to the fullest.  You will get excuses from people all the time why they do not do things. Let me tell you about a nun.   Sister Madonna Buder is an example of a woman who is not too old to live life.  What does Sister Madonna do that makes her so special?  She is competing in triathlons at age 79 and is signed up to run one this year at age 80.  She began running about the age of 50 and worked her way up to running and finishing the Boston Marathon.  She wanted more of a challenge and read in the newspaper about triathlons.  She overcame some broken bones in the 1980’s while training to run the ironman triathlon in Hawaii. She would compete in the 60 plus category in the 1990’s and in 1992 she had her best finish which included her stopping to help a dehydrated participant till help came and still finish with a record breaking time.  We never have an excuse to not do things because of age!  We can live and enjoy life.  

Here is another thing to do and that is put off putting off and start acting.  People put things off and put things off to the point that they never get anything accomplished.  You need to have goals.  You need to be aiming for something.  If you aim at nothing you will always hit it.  NO OPPORTUNITY WASTED you should not waste what God has given you.

God gives you opportunities – take them!  Everyday we are given opportunities in life.  We have a choice – we can take the opportunity or let it pass us by.  People with a positive outlook grab these opportunities and do something with them.  God has given them to you and now you need to do something with them.  God has given us a life to live, so live is what we should be doing!

We need to be enjoying our lives, taking opportunities, laughing and smiling!

What is one way you will enjoy yourself today?