Life Is A Privilege, Life Is A Joy

1. Life becomes interesting when you see it as a privilege God has given you. It is a short opportunity

For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James 4:14

2. Life is also a good opportunity. It is important we see life from the viewpoint of God. After creation, God saw his work as good.

In life, we have chances for good inheritance, both in time and eternity.

You could remember Joseph. He had great dreams, dreams of success and good impact in the world. Even so we all have our God-given dreams. Like Joseph, we must engage life in faith, obedience and diligence for our dreams to come to pass. If Joseph did not work hard unto excellence and if he did not observe God’s rules, his dreams would have been aborted.

This is the challenge in life. An opportunity to fulfil the blessed dreams God has put inside of you.

You are going to be yourself. You are not going to pursue another’s dream. You are not going to believe the world opinion of you. You must believe in the dreams God put in you.

And of course, you also have promises in the world to come.

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.2 Tim 4:8

3. It is an opportunity to relate with God. Enoch made use of this lifetime opportunity. We have a one sentence summary of his biography, and it read thus:

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.Gen 5:24

Your life is blessed because you can have uninterrupted relationship with God, whatever else is interrupted. Joseph drives home the point for us. His home was interrupted, his job was interrupted but in all, ‘the LORD was with Joseph’ Gen 39:2,21.

4. Life is interesting because it is challenging. It is a ‘good fight’ 1 Tim 6:2. A fight in which you have great promises, where victory is rewarded, where you apply yourself to a noble objective.Like a football match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, it is exciting because we know both sides are strong.

So you do not get put off by the challenges. The challenges are also the chances. The obstacles are also the opportunities. No one calls you a victor if you didn’t face seemingly insurmountable challenges. It is interesting when you challenge yourself to believe in success when you seem to have nothing beside your dreams, but faithfulness in little will beat a path to greatness.

Life becomes interesting and exciting when you engage the challenges in faith. You don’t seek to escape from the challenges, but face them in faith. We can do God because we have God’s promise to help.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Rom 8:28

It is an outlet for your potentials. It is an opportunity to make a good contribution in God’s creation, to leave a good legacy, to make a mark in God’s continuing work of salvation. Remember this commentary on life hereafter:

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Rev 14:13

If you do not render good service while here, what work or reward is going to follow you? Your input here is going to follow you in the hereafter.

5. Life is also an opportunity for God-programmed discipline. Without training, you cannot reach excellence. So you don’t seek escape when God injects some training into you, maybe through his church.

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Heb 12:9-10

This good perspective will make us accommodate well the training God is giving us, for our own good.

This will propel us to give ourselves fully to God’s calling in our lives, and live out our faith.