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You have God’s permission to enjoy today while you are reaching for and embracing tomorrow.
by Joyce Meyer
Are you enjoying your life? I am convinced one of the most important lessons we can ever learn is to enjoy every day of our lives. One of my greatest desires in ministry is to see people enjoy the life that Jesus died to give us—not for us to just read about it in a book or talk about it at a meeting, but to walk in it daily and experience it as a reality in our everyday lives.
Reaching the Goal
I’m an extremely goal-oriented person, so I can sometimes become so focused on tomorrow that I often fail to appreciate and enjoy today. I have the tendency to think ahead, looking to the next event, work toward the completion of the next assignment, and see what I can check off of my to-do list. Over the years I have learned that the intense pursuit of one goal after another was causing me to miss out on some of the enjoyment life has to offer.
It doesn’t help that our fast-paced, high-pressure society urges us to accomplish as much as we can as quickly as we can, so we can then accomplish even more. God has purposes and plans He wants us to fulfill during the course of our earthly lives, but He also wants us to enjoy and make the most of every day we live.
Discovering Our Funny Bone
I have come to believe that people desperately want to enjoy their lives—to live every day with peace, contentment and joy, which I like to define as “anything from extreme hilarity to calm delight.” Some people are so desperate for joy that they are joining “laughter clubs” where people meet together every morning for the sole purpose of finding some way to laugh before they start their day. We may chuckle at the idea (no pun intended) of laughter clubs, but we should consider the fact that just the need for them reveals a deep hunger in people’s hearts to experience true joy.
Recently, Pew Research Center surveyed Americans to see if they are enjoying their lives. Only about 34 percent reported that they are “very happy” in life.1 This shouldn’t be a surprise to us because we live in a culture where what people have seems to matter more than who they are. But is all this stuff really worth having if we can’t enjoy it? There isn’t any amount of money, measure of fame, job title, talent or skill that does any of us a bit of good if we can’t even enjoy our lives.
What about you? Are you experiencing satisfaction and contentment with who you are and what you do each day? Are you taking time to notice and appreciate the everyday experiences that can make your life rich and rewarding? Or are you racing through each day just so you can get to the next one? Do you find things to laugh about on a regular basis, or are you allowing your responsibilities and the pressure involved to keep you on edge?
Permission to Enjoy Life
Maybe you’ve wanted to enjoy your life but believe that God doesn’t really want you to have any fun. I have great news for you because God wants you to enjoy today and every day. Jesus says in John 10:10, The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).
Jesus wants us not simply to be alive, but to enjoy being alive. He did not come simply to give us physical life or to give us “just enough to get through” life’s challenges and difficulties. We were not created to merely exist, dreading each new day, praying for strength just to make it through another day. No, we were created to enjoy every aspect of our lives—every day of our lives. Jesus came to impart true life to us, the rich, deep, joy-filled life God has for us—a radical life, the kind that is in abundance, to the full, until it overflows.
A few years ago a woman thanked me for giving her permission to enjoy life after she heard me teach on this subject. I believe she represented many other people who have never felt free to enjoy life. We must choose to believe that it is God’s will for us to thoroughly enjoy life. We have God’s permission to enjoy today while we’re reaching for and embracing tomorrow.
I challenge you to go to a new level of enjoyment in your daily life. Determine in your heart that you are going to enjoy where you are today on your way to where you want to be tomorrow. Say it with your mouth; post it up on your bathroom mirror; make it your screensaver: I am determined to enjoy today!
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(1) http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/are-we-happy-yet
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