Enjoy: Finding the Freedom to Delight Daily in God's Good Gifts - Softcover

Newbell, Trillia

 
9781601428523: Enjoy: Finding the Freedom to Delight Daily in God's Good Gifts
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1601428529 ISBN 13: 9781601428523
Verlag: PRH Christian Publishing, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

This thought-provoking book invites you to explore the truth of God’s Word and discover how to nurture daily a spirit of gratitude and deep satisfaction. 

Is It okay to enjoy this life? Watching a gorgeous sunset. Sharing a laugh with a friend. Tasting a sun-ripened strawberry. Each day is full of opportunities for you to savor the countless gifts the Creator has given.
 
But do you feel free to delight in God’s abundant gifts, or is your joy sometimes distorted by guilt, fear of idolatry, or simply an overwhelming awareness of sin’s effects on this world?
 
Trillia Newbell explains how we often miss opportunities to participate in God’s divine delight because we’re discouraged, fixated on selfish fulfillment, or paralyzed by guilt. Enjoy serves as an encouraging reminder of God’s gracious gifts and also challenges women to view all of these gifts—from relationships and careers to food and sex—as reasons to rejoice in the Lord and grow in our understanding and appreciation of who He is.  
 
Enjoy will open your eyes and your heart to the freedom of fully enjoying all God has given us!

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Trillia J. Newbell is the author of two previous books, Fear and Faith and United. Her writings on issues of faith, family, and diversity have been published in the Knoxville News-Sentinel and Relevant Magazine, as well as on numerous websites, such as Desiring God, Christianity Today, and the Gospel Coalition. She is the director of community outreach for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Trillia lives near Nashville with her husband, Thern, and their children.

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An Invitation to Enjoy
 

A few years ago I bought a bike. Not just any old bike, but a Specialized road bike, which is a style often used for racing or longer rides. After spending a couple of months mostly sitting to finish up several writing projects, I wanted a new and interesting outlet for fitness. A good friend is an avid cyclist, and hearing his delight in the sport made me that much more curious. So instead of testing the waters, I just jumped straight in. 

Let me tell you, I love cycling. For so many reasons. I’m never more aware of God’s beautiful creation than while riding through it on my bike. I’m drawn to worship and rejoice and thank God for his gifts, like oxygen, trees, and the horses I ride past on one of my routes. Not to mention how much I benefit from the exercise, which helps me focus with renewed energy when I return to the tasks of my day.
But here’s the thing: simply enjoying my time on the bike didn’t feel right to me. It seemed that my cycling needed to have a greater purpose, that the time invested needed to be legitimized by something with deeper meaning. So not long after I   bought the road bike, I began training for a triathlon. I connected with an organization I love and built a fundraiser out of my leisure activity. That felt right. The problem is, it wasn’t.
  
As I began to formalize my plans, I connected with a leader of the organization I wanted to fundraise for. Soon I realized that what he desired me to do and what I actually had the time for wasn’t possible. I couldn’t finish all the projects for the fundraising effort and train and still have time for the rest of my life activities related to work and family. It quickly became too much for me. In the end, a small wreck on my bike put me out of training for a few months. In terms of triathlon training, especially when new to the sport, that’s a long time. In the end, I missed my race. I was terribly sad but realized God was teaching me much through this situation.

I started to recognize the importance of knowing my limits and learning the discipline of saying no. But beyond that, I began to ask myself why I felt I couldn’t have a hobby solely for the pur- pose of enjoyment. Why did I wrestle with guilt over time spent riding my bike, feeling as if it were a waste of time unless I turned it into something greater? Could a leisure activity possibly be a way to glorify God?

In the months since, I’ve discovered the answer is a definite yes.

Have  you,  too,  struggled  with  whether  it’s  okay  to enjoy something in your life, such as maintaining a flower garden or sitting down to read or dancing with your husband? I imagine I’m not alone in feeling confused about the purpose and significance of leisure, as well as other pleasures in life, and I’d love to share with you some of what I’ve discovered. In this book, you and I will consider together why God gave us things like leisure, relationships, work, creation, and sex. And my prayer is that in learning to better enjoy, recognize, and appreciate these gifts, we’ll learn to more clearly see and more passionately worship the provider of all these good gifts. 
 
God’s Invitation to Enjoy

The world has its share of dark and difficult things. After all, life is not all rainbows and butterflies. I know this all too well, having experienced the deaths of dear loved ones, the pain of unfair criticism, and the agony of miscarriages. Yet the Bible specifically instructs us to rejoice in our sorrows, to delight and give thanks. Does this mean we’re supposed to walk around pretending every- thing is okay? I don’t think so.

The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, unpacked this apparent paradox. After describing the various sufferings he and his companions had endured, Paul wrote of being “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). He didn’t pretend life was easy. He acknowledged the hardships he had endured, and yet he also recognized that he had a great Savior and, as a result, much reason for rejoicing.

Paul continued this theme in 1 Thessalonians: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (5:16–18). He also revealed that joy is a fruit of the Spirit—something that is devel- oped and nurtured within us by his presence in our lives and by his grace (see Galatians 5:22). So we can conclude that we need God in order to have true and lasting joy.

The reality is that you and I live in a fallen world, yet at the same time, God has given us abundantly more than we could ask for or imagine. You and I have been given gifts upon gifts from God, gifts he intends for our enjoyment. In the pages to come, we are going to think on these things and even experiment with how we can move beyond recognition of these wonderful gifts to practical delight in them.
  
So what does it look like to truly enjoy? I think God lays it out for us in 1 Thessalonians, in the verse we just looked at. Our enjoyment is all about him. He gives good gifts, and we in turn thank him. But we not only thank God—we experience the fullness of enjoyment as we let those gifts point us to truths about him.

Think about your favorite dish. My mouth begins to water as I imagine taking a bite of a strawberry dipped in Nutella. Eating a strawberry can seem so trivial until we begin to reflect on the Giver of the gift. Knowing who is behind the gift brings significance to that food and prompts an attitude of thanksgiving. We can enjoy every single bite to the glory of God (see 1 Corinthians 10:31).

The reality, however, is that nothing in this world can be truly fulfilling. The whole earth groans for the new heaven and earth (see Romans 8:22). We long for something better. It’s a longing that won’t be fulfilled here—not now, not on this earth. The president of Desiring God ministries, Jon Bloom, summed up this sentiment well:
 
Right now even the best things are not what they should be. And so much goes so very wrong. In this partial age, our bodies, our loved ones, our careers, our creations, our investments, and our plans are all subject to the forces of futility (Romans 8:20). This age is marked more by suffering (8:18), longing (8:19), groaning (8:23), and hope (8:24) than by fulfillment.
 
I think the Preacher in Ecclesiastes would have given Bloom a hearty “Amen!” When I read the first few sentences of Ecclesiastes, it makes me want to throw in the towel and head straight to heaven! “All is vanity,” he proclaims. Why bother with toil, or anything else for that matter? Yet if you keep reading, you see redemption. You see why we participate in the everyday activities of life: it’s all vanity, sure, but it’s all a gift from our heavenly Father! Consider these biblical contrasts:
Toil is exhausting (2:22–23); rejoice in God’s good gift of work  (5:19).

The toil to eat and drink is vain (Psalm 127:2); eating, drink- ing, and work are God’s gift to man (Ecclesiastes 3:12–13).

There’s much to lament about, but we can and should enjoy, delight, and rejoice. Zack Eswine, pastor of Riverside Church in St. Louis, Missouri, puts it like this: “[The Preacher in Ecclesiastes] maintains that God exists and is knowable. Therefore purpose can be recovered, not beneath the sun, but in the One who created the sun.”

Purpose. There must be purpose in order for us to make...

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Verlag
PRH Christian Publishing
Erscheinungsdatum
2016
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1601428529
ISBN 13 
9781601428523
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
240
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
preigu
mail@preigu.de

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