Here is what I have seen to be good: it is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.
Ecclesiastes 5: 18 (HCSB)
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5: 13-20
Life is challenging. Followers of Christ should find enjoyment in the lives they have been given. This devotion looks at being content in life as we serve Christ.
When I was growing up, there was a preacher who would come to preach revivals every now and then. His name was Fred, and his wife’s name was Elaine. He would say that laughter massaged the liver.
Yep, when Fred was around, our livers got a workout.
Of course, most of this laughter occurred when we were eating. Every Sunday evening after the service, usually four families would get together and have a snack. When Fred and Elaine were there, they would come, too.
We never had anything fancy to eat. The grown ups had coffee or tea; the kids generally had soda. We had some snacky thing to eat.
What we had was fun. The kids would play Murder at Midnight. Once, one of the boys turned me upside down and walked me on the ceiling. Another time, we kids put on a skit. We all thought my cousin got hurt when she fell, but she popped right back up.
The grown ups would talk. My dad’s best friend would tell Big Dummy stories. I don’t remember who called whom a big dummy in the stories he told, but somehow, he became Big Dummy and I became his Little Dummy because I had a line I would deliver.
In the end, a good time was had by all. We did just what God wanted us to do — enjoy life.
God knew us from before we were conceived. Jeremiah 1: 5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…” (ESV). God made us and has plans for us (Jer. 29: 11).
Those plans don’t call for us to be sticks in the mud. We are supposed to reflect His love. That includes His love of life. We are supposed to be content with our lives.
Does that mean we are never supposed to make any changes in our lives? We are never supposed to grow and do better? No. It means we are supposed to bloom where God plants us and be content.
Proverbs 14:27 says, “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death” (NIV). If we have been saved from the snares of death, shouldn’t that make us happy?
Yes, this life right now is imperfect. We are still trapped in our sinful bodies. However, we tend to forget that life is a gift from God.
Let’s talk about gifts from God for a second. We each get one. First Peter 4:10 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (ESV).
We generally read this to be a reference to “… And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers” (Eph. 4:11 ESV). That was further fleshed out in Romans 12:6-7: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching” (ESV).
Our minds kind of shut down when we read “prophecy” in verse 7 so we gloss over “service.” “Teaching” also trips up some people. We generally say we can’t do those, even the serving part.
Then we totally forget about Romans 12: 8: “the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (ESV). Now, “exhorts” isn’t a word we use every day. It means to strongly encourage.
We can all encourage others, can’t we? We can all contribute — no, we’re not limiting this to money. We have something we can contribute — time, advice, a smile. If mercy is kindness that makes you forgive someone, doesn’t that tie into the random acts of kindness we hear so much about?
Don’t these gifts bear fruit? If the fruits of the Spirit are “…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” (Gal. 5: 22-23 NKJV), how can we be sticks in the mud? Joy makes us happy. Peace makes us happy. Self-control leads to happiness.
Life is short. James put it this way: “…It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (Jas. 4: 14 NKJV). God wants us to enjoy our time while we are here.
Gracious Heavenly Father. You have given us so much. You want so much for us. You want us to be happy. You want us to know the joy of serving You. We get so burdened by striving to do the do’s and making sure we don’t do the don’ts, we let it steal our joy. Forgive us, Lord. Help us to find our joy in life in You. Amen.
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I disagree, because why did He give me mental illness then? My answer is that He did not because He did not create me as He did Adam and Eve. A selfish imbecile satisfied his wicked drive and forced his horrid Frankenstein genetics onto me. I wouldn’t have chosen my horrible life, God forces me to live. God gave us reason, and reason shows us that eugenics is necessary so that genetically sick, ugly people don’t force their horrid genetics onto others. Dixit Hamlet: “or that the Everlastint had not fix’d his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter.”
When God created the universe, He did not create disease and illnesses, of which mental illness is one. That came into our world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and committed the original sin.
Disease and illnesses are the results of that sin, not your parent. We don’t know why God allows one person to have mental illness, another to have cancer, and a third to be totally healthy.
All we know is that God said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you …” (Jer. 1: 5 ESV). So while God may not have formed you as He did Adam and Eve, He still chose which sperm and which egg at which time would form you.
God loves you. He loved you so much that He sent His only son to die so that His blood could pay the penalty for our sins.