ENJOY

They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long ENJOY the work of their hands – Isaiah 65:22

To be blessed is to ENJOY God’s divine favor. Talking about “enjoyment,” some people portray a strange attitude as if God is against us enjoying anything here on earth. Their posture is like life should be an “endurance race” from cradle to grave. True, life is full of challenges, and spiritual warfare is central to the Christian faith; yet, God wants His children to ENJOY Him and all of His gifts. What is important is this: blessing isn’t just about having more stuff; it’s being able to ENJOY the stuff you have. True and enduring blessings include, but definitely transcend material things. Whether material blessings or otherwise, the gifts of God are meant to be enjoyed. The Bible teaches both endurance and enjoyment. Let’s meditate on the balance between endurance and enjoyment.

To endure means “to bear, tolerate or hold out against something.” Matthew 24:13 says, “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” This describes the one who endures the end-times challenges as enumerated in Mathew 24:3-12 without giving up the faith. Mark 13:13 reiterates the same truth. In addition, we are called to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2Tim.2:3 kjv). Hardness refers to military discipline; not suffering for suffering sake! The tenth verse goes on to admonish us to “endure all things for the elect’s sakes.”  We are also enjoined to “endure sound doctrine” and to “endure afflictions” (2Tim.4:3,5). Afflictions here, refers to “suffering for the Lord,” not satanic afflictions. Nowhere is the believer told to endure Satan’s onslaught and buffeting. You are to “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jam.4:7b), and to “resist him, steadfast in the faith” (1Pet.5:9). Another thing to endure is the “chastening” of the Lord” (Heb.12:5-7). None of these dimensions of endurance rules out the possibility of “enjoyment”!

Our key text Isaiah 65:22 reads like the reverse of the curse denounced on the disobedient in Deuteronomy 28:30. Although this prophetic text primarily refers to the Millennium, its secondary application to the present-day believer must not be lost. Would it be contrary to the pleasure of your Loving Father that you inhabit the house you built; that you, and not strangers, eat from the garden you planted; that your days be prolonged as the days of long-lived trees; and that you long ENJOY the work of your hands? The wise man confirms this truth: that God’s blessings are given to be enjoyed: “There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should ENJOY GOOD in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God” (Ecc.2:24). It is part of God’s blessings in life that “every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor – it is the gift of God” (Ecc.3:13).

Paul told Timothy: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly ALL THINGS TO ENJOY” (1Tim.6:17). God is not against riches or “those who are rich in this present age.” His main concern is that your possessions do not ‘possess’ you or dispossess you of your trust in Him. Riches and wealth are meant to be life-tools to fulfil destiny’s callings; not ‘gods’ to worship or offer your trust. When a person begins to put his or her trust in riches, they lose value and degenerate into “uncertain riches”! God’s will is that we enjoy the lands of our possession (Jos.1:15). Finally, when there is a choice between righteousness and unrighteousness, God has given us Moses' Model: “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Heb.11:25). Our calling is not to sinful enjoyment, but to righteous enjoyment! May you enjoy your faith, family, finances, career, and children! May you enjoy serving God!