Enjoying Your Way Fit
Have we lost the ability to enjoy life?
America’s growing depression and anxiety levels are at an all-time high. Research shows that 10-15% of Americans are on some form of prescription antidepressant, and it’s a good option for many people. Medication is good for treating symptoms, and I’m all for it, but I believe that many other factors could treat the symptoms.
1. We’ve blown up the family and we need to fix this to resolve many issues.
2. Our culture has a preoccupation with money, fame, and power.
A key to being spiritually fit is learning to enjoy life. Most of us recognize the need to enjoy but have a difficult time making it a consistent part of our lives.
We are to model our lives after God Himself.
Most often our lack of enjoyment in our lives comes from a lack of balance. To bring enjoyment into more appropriate levels, let’s look at God’s Word.
Ephesians 5:1
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children
How do I imitate God?
Knowing Christ and imitating Him requires stillness, a slowing down, a quieting of our spirits.
Psalm 46:10
Cease striving and know that I am God
That’s hard to do when work piles up, deadlines encroach, and you have scheduled yourself and family to the breaking point. But look at the example of Jesus.
Matthew 14:23
After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.
You must permit yourself for leisure, time of un-scheduled enjoyment. That’s a vital part of imitating God.
4 Guidelines to Enjoy Yourself Fit
1. Take time to enjoy being creative
Genesis 1:1-2
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
God made beauty, order, and purpose.
If we are to mimic God, we must take time to create – express that part of us that reflects our uniqueness. The act of creating lifts us above the animal kingdom to a unique role as children of God.
2. Take time to enjoy people through simple conversation
Later in the same chapter in Genesis we see that communication existed first among the members of the Godhead.
After creating man, God communicated with him.
Communication was a full expression of God’s deity. God is not some blind, deaf, and mute force of nature, He is a God who sees, hears, and who speaks. So, too, are you and me.
We mimic the Trinity when we share, listen, think, and get to know Christ, ourselves, and others.
3. Take time to enjoy rest
On the seventh day God created the weekend! He deliberately stopped working, not because He ran out of ideas, nor because He was tired. He stopped to enjoy His creations, He made rest a priority. He stopped to enjoy His creations.
Do you take time to reflect on the work in your life? Are you running so ragged, you are tired all the time? I make time for rest, I actually take a Sabbath. Part of our problem is that we think we are missing or our kids are missing out so we program the family to death.
When was the last time you had a Saturday to enjoy the day? Go fly a kit and talk to your family, lay under the stars at night and enjoy God’s handiwork.
4. Take time to enjoy relationships
God saw the need for Adam to have a human relationship, so He created Eve. He also took time to relate to Adam and Eve in a personal way. Just as God developed a relationship by regularly meeting with Adam and Eve in the garden, so Jesus took time to develop relationships with His disciples.
Are you cultivating relationships as a way of life? What are you doing to really enjoy your spouse and their company? Are you sowing seeds of friendship?
This mean taking time to build your relationship with Christ as well.
How Do I Practice Enjoyment?
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Enjoying life is a biblical concept.
Leisure, stillness, silence, and rest, they all go together. They belong to one another. If you are going to engage with Christ and His purposes in your life, if you are going to live the abundant life, then you must learn to enjoy it.
America’s growing depression and anxiety levels are at an all-time high. Research shows that 10-15% of Americans are on some form of prescription antidepressant, and it’s a good option for many people. Medication is good for treating symptoms, and I’m all for it, but I believe that many other factors could treat the symptoms.
1. We’ve blown up the family and we need to fix this to resolve many issues.
2. Our culture has a preoccupation with money, fame, and power.
A key to being spiritually fit is learning to enjoy life. Most of us recognize the need to enjoy but have a difficult time making it a consistent part of our lives.
We are to model our lives after God Himself.
Most often our lack of enjoyment in our lives comes from a lack of balance. To bring enjoyment into more appropriate levels, let’s look at God’s Word.
Ephesians 5:1
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children
How do I imitate God?
Knowing Christ and imitating Him requires stillness, a slowing down, a quieting of our spirits.
Psalm 46:10
Cease striving and know that I am God
That’s hard to do when work piles up, deadlines encroach, and you have scheduled yourself and family to the breaking point. But look at the example of Jesus.
Matthew 14:23
After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.
You must permit yourself for leisure, time of un-scheduled enjoyment. That’s a vital part of imitating God.
4 Guidelines to Enjoy Yourself Fit
1. Take time to enjoy being creative
Genesis 1:1-2
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
God made beauty, order, and purpose.
If we are to mimic God, we must take time to create – express that part of us that reflects our uniqueness. The act of creating lifts us above the animal kingdom to a unique role as children of God.
2. Take time to enjoy people through simple conversation
Later in the same chapter in Genesis we see that communication existed first among the members of the Godhead.
After creating man, God communicated with him.
Communication was a full expression of God’s deity. God is not some blind, deaf, and mute force of nature, He is a God who sees, hears, and who speaks. So, too, are you and me.
We mimic the Trinity when we share, listen, think, and get to know Christ, ourselves, and others.
3. Take time to enjoy rest
On the seventh day God created the weekend! He deliberately stopped working, not because He ran out of ideas, nor because He was tired. He stopped to enjoy His creations, He made rest a priority. He stopped to enjoy His creations.
Do you take time to reflect on the work in your life? Are you running so ragged, you are tired all the time? I make time for rest, I actually take a Sabbath. Part of our problem is that we think we are missing or our kids are missing out so we program the family to death.
When was the last time you had a Saturday to enjoy the day? Go fly a kit and talk to your family, lay under the stars at night and enjoy God’s handiwork.
4. Take time to enjoy relationships
God saw the need for Adam to have a human relationship, so He created Eve. He also took time to relate to Adam and Eve in a personal way. Just as God developed a relationship by regularly meeting with Adam and Eve in the garden, so Jesus took time to develop relationships with His disciples.
Are you cultivating relationships as a way of life? What are you doing to really enjoy your spouse and their company? Are you sowing seeds of friendship?
This mean taking time to build your relationship with Christ as well.
How Do I Practice Enjoyment?
- Consciously stop being absorbed with the minutia of life
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
- Consciously start taking time to enjoy
Enjoying life is a biblical concept.
Leisure, stillness, silence, and rest, they all go together. They belong to one another. If you are going to engage with Christ and His purposes in your life, if you are going to live the abundant life, then you must learn to enjoy it.
Pastor Chris Williams
To learn more about Pastor Chris and his teaching, visit us on the web at fcfamily.org and make sure you subscribe to receive these biweekly encouragements in your inbox.
To learn more about Pastor Chris and his teaching, visit us on the web at fcfamily.org and make sure you subscribe to receive these biweekly encouragements in your inbox.
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Christ Honoring Disagreements: How to Disagree In An Age of VitriolWorry Got Me like…: Crushing Worry For 2,000 YearsThe Power of Mom: Who will look more like Jesus because of your investment in them?The Battle For Your Mind: You Are Who He Says You AreChristian Disagreement in the Covid EraMarriage Secret: One Pro Tip That Will Change EverythingThe Contented Christian: Being Content When My World Has Been Shut Down and Turned Upside DownThe Church Isn’t a Building, But It IS a Gathered People
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