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Making the Most of the Life God Gives Us
It always grieves me to encounter people who whine and complain their way through life. Such grumblers typically repel other people, never grasping the fact that they are to blame for their lack of good friendships. For the inability to make or keep close friends, they often blame everyone but themselves. However, their own negative personality brings about their lonesome social condition, because no one really enjoys spending much time with them. Such people are usually greatly deceived and need to, as we say, “Get a life!” There are also those people who allow fear to back them into a corner. Often because of past negative experiences, or curses inherited from their parents, they let one great relationship after another escape them, and their fear causes them to miss many golden opportunities that could take them into a life of blessings. I believe it was Benjamin Disraeli who said, “Life is too short to be little.” In this statement he addressed the need for people—all people—to get out of the negative vein and into the positive vein of life. He said, “Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.” In other words, we need to get excited about life! We must refuse to stare at life’s deficit column and set our gaze on its asset column. We have much to be thankful for if we will only think about it a little while. Without taking counsel of our fears, our past failures or our pain, let’s go for it! I enjoy good quotes. Here is one I find appropriate when considering our lives here on this planet: There is no cure for birth or for death save to enjoy the interval. Between the time we are born and the time we die, God gives us a few years in which we are to grow and prosper. In that brief interval we can get an education, acquire a skill, earn a living, find a mate, accept and walk with Jesus, and prepare the world for our absence. While we do all of this, God wants us to enjoy the process, neither taking ourselves too seriously nor too lightly. A delicate balance must be struck. While life on earth is risky, the joy found in reaching for our potential should far outweigh the risks involved. It is calculated that a man or woman will fail many times in life before finding ultimate success. As human beings, we run the risk that we will marry someone with whom we are not compatible for the long haul; we run the risk that if we invest our money, the economy will take a severe downturn; we run the risk that if we have children, one or more of them might not outlive us; we run the risk that if we enroll in an evening class, we may not be able to handle the load and pass the exams; and we run the risk that something could kill us every time we leave the safety of our home. What then should we do? My answer is simple: Cast fear to the wind and go for it! Move confidently into relationships once the Spirit’s quickening is obvious; invest money wisely and confidently, expecting the Lord to bless your return; embrace the life of parenthood and expect that your children will one day bury you. Take that class at the community college, and plan to better your life by what you learn and by the degree you earn. Understand that success is not always attained by a single undivided effort, and it rarely follows a halting vacillating one. Indeed, progress only comes when we are willing to fail; indeed, we would rather fail at something worthwhile than to refuse to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, or the yearning of the adventurer, pioneer, or explorer within us. Launch Out in Spite of the Risks A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. Our lives, like a fleet of ships, are to be loosed from their moorings to challenge the rising swells of the high seas. Ships locked in harbor never carry their payload across the oceans to those in need. Ships forever tethered to sturdy piers never show anyone what they are made of. Ships confined in dry dock never challenge an enemy’s fleet, driving it from their coasts. And so it is with a life. If you never venture out and explore life’s possibilities for fear of making a mistake, you’ll live and die in mediocrity, and your inherent greatness will never be realized. Stop making excuses, and go for it! I Won’t is a tramp, I Can’t is a quitter, I Don’t Know is lazy, I Wish I Could is a wisher, I Might is waking up, I Will Try is on his feet, I Can is on his way, I Will is at work, and I Did is now the boss. Life on earth is not very long. Therefore, too much of it must not pass by in idle deliberation as to how it shall be spent. When something makes you tick inside, and there is an apparent liking and aptitude for it, then go for it! Making Life Count I enjoy giving my life to enterprises that honor God and extend the kingdom. After getting saved I geared my guitar playing toward worship so I could help people praise Jesus. I began studying the Word so I could instruct others and myself in the way of righteousness. I know of men who tightened up in their businesses so they could better honor the Lord, do better financially, and have more to give to His kingdom. When I know I am investing my life in things that will last forever, I am gripped by a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. Every time I turn a hand for a neighbor, or greet co-workers with a cheerful salutation, or invest time, money and energy in the lives of others, I am blessed beyond measure. That is the recipe for an enjoyable life! Indeed, the great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. Choose Life I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death…therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. A meaningful life is available to everyone, but it must be chosen. Despite the injustices of childhood or the disappointments of youth, a better life can be chosen because God says to choose it. The best life is found in the person of Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE!” God wants you and me to choose Him, enjoy Him, and include Him in everything we do. Jesus brings pleasure into everything we’re about if we let Him. He adds comfort to all of life’s heartaches, puts meaning into our wildernesses, and replaces gloom and sadness with joy unspeakable. God places the ball into our court; how we play it depends on us. Finding Life Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord. The best life is available to everyone, but it must be sought after and found. God does not hide life from us; He hides it for us. Nevertheless, listening for Him, watching for Him, and waiting for Him are prerequisites to the kind of life we are considering. The impatient, preoccupied and imprudent find and enjoy little of the life and favor God has for them. They allow the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things to enter into their hearts and choke out the life-giving Word. Make the “zōe” life of God your quest (John 5:21; 1 John 5:12), and watch what happens. The God-kind of life is available to those who yearn for it. Basic Requirements for Worthwhile Living 1. A right mental attitude. No man is a failure who enjoys life. Learn to enjoy the process. Start meditating on God’s goodness and “think” yourself into the blessings of God rather than out of them. 2. Mental and spiritual toughness. The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much. Yes, life at times is hard, very hard. But with Jesus in the mix, we know better days always lie ahead. Following every dark night is a dawn. Behind every cold winter is springtime. At the end of every dark tunnel is a light. As Christians we must be able to “take it on the chin.” We must endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, “knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:9). We are not alone in the things we suffer, and we can count on the promise of a bright new day when sickness, despair and heartache will be no more. 3. Spiritual patience. A man watches a pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both the fruit and the tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe fruit at length falls into his lap. —Abraham Lincoln We cannot force certain things to happen in our lives. Rarely can we force natural issues or spiritual ones. Many things need time to incubate before they come to pass. This is true of relationships, prophetic words, ministries, successful business ventures, etc. Maturation is a process, not a magic wand. 4. Right Words. Death and Life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. I love the fruit of life-filled words, of healing words, of kind and uplifting words. I love the results that come from words that edify, minister life and blessing, and that deliver the power of God into a situation. Positive words bring positive results. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. If you wish to travel far and fast in life, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, resentment, selfishness and fears. If one refuses to submit his heart to God’s standard of character; if one refuses to yield his tongue as an instrument of righteousness, but persists in feeling and talking negatively about his own life or the lives of other people, he will consistently bog down along the way, and never realize his potential or fulfill his destiny in Christ. 5. Right Living. 6. Living for Others. If I can stop one heart from breaking I shall not live in vain. If I can ease one life from aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin into his nest again, I shall not live in vain. The best life is that which is lived for other people. Jesus looked on the fields white for harvest, and saw the people as sheep without a shepherd. There were pretty people, ugly people, high-minded people and low-minded people; there were wealthy people and impoverished people; dark people and light-colored people, kind people and irritable people. And yet Jesus was moved with compassion and he healed their sick. His compassion released a miracle flow. The Lord can trust the compassionate man or woman with His powerful blessing. The Lord can work through those who live, not for themselves, but for the people around them. My friend, choose this life and see what happens. You soon see that there is no other kind of life to have. |
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