Money Week: “Enjoy Your Life”

“Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.” (Ecclesiastes 5:19-20)

Has God given you wealth and possessions? Okay, you want more. Me too. But nearly all of us could point to some possessions, and most could do show-and-tell for hours with all of our cool stuff.

moneyweek_350Do you enjoy your stuff? It’s okay. God wants you to enjoy it all. Paul wrote that “God provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (1 Timothy 6:17) He even means for your work (whatever that looks like in your life) to be satisfying — not fun, necessarily, but to give you the pleasure of doing something really well.

Solomon concluded that if you have those things, you should focus your life on enjoying each moment as a gift from the God who loves you so dearly. Cram your day with thanking Him for the waffles and the mp3s and your best friend’s laugh and the ability to cry and that cool breeze and Facebook and language and . . . pretty soon you’ll run out of time to list all the ways that life brings you pain.

Think: Is this anything more than just thinking happy thoughts to distract ourselves from life’s darkness? Does God really want us to relax and enjoy the good things in our lives as gifts from Him? Does He only want us to do that?

Pray: Ask God to help you fill up your day today with telling Him thanks for every good thing you can possibly notice.

Do: Spend all day making a list of every good thing you can possibly notice. Thank God for each new thing on the list as it comes up.