How To Enjoy Life More

Introduction: Psalm 122:1 says, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.” KJV

How many of you can honestly say that you are glad to be in the house of the Lord this morning, as opposed to the finest hospital in America?

Let me ask you another question this morning? How many of you really enjoy life?

Now that may sound like a silly question to some of you, but from my observations there are probably more people in this world who are not happy and aren’t enjoying life than those who do. Even some of us who are Christians aren’t enjoying life the way God wants us to. We allow stress, problems, disease and a number of other things to keep us from really enjoying life to its fullest. Unfortunately, hundreds of people in America every week make the decision that life really isn’t worth living and take matters into their own hands by committing suicide. I personally believe that God wants us to be happy. That He wants us to enjoy this life. Which is what I think Jesus was saying in John 10:10 when he said, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” KJV

Having a personal love relationship with Jesus Christ is what makes life worth living. Bill and Gloria Gaither would agree with that and a few years ago they wrote a song that expresses this truth. Why don’t we sing the chorus of because He lives together this morning?

“Because He Lives I can face tomorrow; Because He lives all fear is gone; Because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives.”

Knowing that God loves us and really wants us to enjoy life instead of just surviving from one day to the next should be an encouragement to those of us who are Christians. I’ve said this before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but if anyone should be happy, if anyone should enjoy life it is those of us who are Christians. (AMEN?) If that’s true, and I believe it is, then why do so many of us walk around town with a frown on our face looking like we just lost our best friend.

Well there are probably a variety of reasons for that, however I believe the primary reason is because we allow Satan to take away or ‘steal’ our joy. That’s what the first part of John 10:10 says, Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Satan doesn’t want you to enjoy life. In fact, according to this scripture and many others he would like nothing more than to destroy your life.

I want to share four things with you today that I believe we as Christians can do, not only to make our lives more enjoyable, but to make them more pleasing to God.

I. FIRST OF ALL, I BELIEVE WE SHOULD DO OUR BEST TO LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THINGS.

Illustration: How many of you saw the movie Garfield? Well before Garfield hit the big screen, he was in the Newspaper. In one particular strip Garfield is lying in his box and his owner, Jon, walks up and says, "Are you Depressed, Garfield? Garfield, doesn’t answer him, he just gives him one of those disgusted looks. Then Jon says, “Well, look on the bright side. Compared to absolute, hopeless despair, depressed is cheerful!" To which Garfield sarcastically, replies "gee, I feel better already!"

When Moses sent the spies into the Promise Land, 10 of them came back and said, "We can’t do it,.. They are giants... we are like grasshoppers compared to them.”

But Caleb said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." Numbers 13:30.

Caleb was looking on the bright side of things. He was thinking positive. He saw the same things the other 10 spies saw, but he saw them differently.

Someone once said, The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; while the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Obviously Joshua and Caleb were optimists and the other 10 spies were pessimists. They knew that God wanted them to have the land, and they knew that He had promised to deliver the people into their hands. Which was the reason that both Joshua and Caleb felt that there was no need to delay the invasion. Unfortunately for Israel, they didn’t listen to Joshua and Caleb, and ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. If they would have just listened to them it would have changed their lives dramatically.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "The sentence which has most influenced my life is, ’Some persons grumble because God placed thorns among roses. Why not thank God because He placed roses among thorns?’