The Secret of an Enjoyable Life
The secret to an enjoyable life is revealed in Ecclesiastes 2:25: "Without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?"
Not surprisingly, the secret is found in being with God, for, as the passage states clearly in the beginning, without him there is no enjoyment. This is because God is the ultimate source of everything that is good, including what are considered to be the little things of life. Without God, even the simplest acts of life, such as eating, eventually become unenjoyable, merely something we must do just to survive--and life is more than surviving, more than existing, or else it is not really living at all.
Job discovered this in his suffering, for he said:
"Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg? I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill" (Job 6:6,7).
Job thought he had been abandoned by God in his suffering.
"If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!" (Job 23:3).
Job wants to be where God is, to be with him, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? But as much as he desires to be with God, he cannot find him:
"But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him" (Job 23:8,9),
Therefore, there is no enjoyment for Job in his life; indeed, he wishes he no longer lived at all, for even the ordinary acts of daily living no longer hold their enjoyment for him:
"When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning" (Job 7:13-16).
Now, it is no doubt true that Job's horrible suffering had a large part to do with his loss of enjoying life. But to ascribe his forlorn outlook and dismal words entirely to his suffering is to miss a deeper truth about our lives that would be a true loss to ourselves. For many people suffer in their lives yet find a reason to persist and find an even deeper satisfaction in continuing to live, even if perhaps it cannot be called enjoyment. They find that reason and deeper satisfaction in a closer relationship with God. For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
It wasn't only his suffering that so weighed on Job but his inability to find God in that suffering. A man can endure just about anything, so long as he knows that suffering has a purpose in God's plan or that it is God's will that he suffers. The apostle Paul knew this truth. You have heard Job's words; now listen to Paul's:
"The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.' When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, 'Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.' When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, 'The Lord's will be done' (Acts 21:11-14).
Paul was ready to suffer whatever the Lord had willed for him, in order that God might be glorified through him. Obviously, he did not enjoy that suffering; that would be unnatural. But because he found his enjoyment in life in being with God, he was willing to suffer for that same God; having God as the source of all his enjoyment made him able to endure whatever suffering would come about because of his submission to God in the good times. Paul was ready for good times or bad because in both situations, it was God's presence that got him through the tough times and enabled him to enjoy again the good times. Or as Paul put it:
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:11-13).
This is the secret which Job also knew, for he said:
"'Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?' In all this, Job did not sin in what he said" (Job 2:10).
It is the presence of God that gives life enjoyment, whether our times be good or bad as we think of them. Daily life is a gift from God and we should be thankful for each day, no matter what that day brings, for either way, it is yet another opportunity to live for God and witness of him to this world. This gift of life each day is poured out by God upon all whom he has made, not just those who realize the source of this wonderful gift.
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" (1 Tim. 6:17).
"He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Mt. 5:45).
All in this world are provided the basic necessities of life--rain for growing food and the ability to enjoy eating that food and other enjoyments of life--only because God is present in this world. It will not be so in hell, apart from him--no enjoyment there. God is source of all that is good, including the physical body that can eat and find enjoyment in eating and enjoyment in all of life. He is the source. When the source is absent, so is the subsequent and consequent enjoyment of the things that come from that source. That is why there is no enjoyment of anything in hell--not only because of the suffering but because God is not present there and he is the source of our ability to enjoy anything.
In order to make this last point stated above more powerful, I now share some lessons that God has given to some of his people regarding this matter, that he is the source of all enjoyment and that without him no one can find enjoyment. This will be done by sharing some visions that some of his people have received of hell. If you do not believe that such visions can take place, you are free to do so, of course, but please do not dismiss the lessons that such visions are meant to convey, for they do not contradict what God says in his Word and they are, in fact, corroboration of the truths stated in that Word.
After having reviewing a number of such visions, it is plain to see the same connecting thread in all of them. Those who let themselves be overcome in this world by various lusts because they desired them so because of the pleasure they gave, find that those same lusts are their tormentors in hell and far from giving them pleasure, produce only great pain within them. Those who lusted after wealth, for instance, have been seen being drawn to great piles of gold. But when they reached out to touch that gold, painful shocks issued forth from that gold and wracked their bodies. Even so, however, they could not stop reaching out and touching that gold, and continued doing so time after time, only to be painfully shocked each time. And so they spent their existence always striving to gain something they could never have, only to be painfully pushed away by that very thing they desired.
Others who were consumed in this world by the lure of dancing were seen to be dancing with no rest in a large place, their bodies driven by the loud, throbbing "music", but without any pleasure or enjoyment on their part. Their bodies were helpless to stop, even though exhausted and needing rest, for what they had desired in this world had overcome them and now they were helpless to thwart its hold on them. The spell of their heart's desire completely consumed them and drove them on to unending and useless motion; they wanted to stop and rest, but they could not. They were utterly controlled by their heart's desire for something other than God.
These are just two examples that could be given. Now, as was said, if you do not think that God gives such visions to his people, you are free to hold that view, but they could then be thought of as parables--stories that illustrate a truth, even if the actual story may or may not have ever happened. Whether such visions portray the actual way it is at various places or times in hell can be debated, but the truths behind the visions are found in God's Word. For that Word says that sin is like a rope that binds a person to that sin so that he or she cannot escape.
"The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast" (Prov. 5:22).
"May ruin overtake them by surprise--may the net they hid entangle them, may they fall into the pit, to their ruin" (Ps. 35:8).
"If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning" "(2Pet 2:20)
"They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him" (2 Ptr. 2:19).
Thus it is that only when the good things of life are used as one belongs to God and submits to his lordship do those good things give pleasure as they are meant to do. Otherwise, when attempting to partake of them for our own selfish purposes, we eventually lose any enjoyment that they can give. And sometimes the time period for this to happen is much shorter than we could ever have imagined, even immediately. An example of this is given in the Bible when Amnon "fell in love" with his relative Tamar. He was so overcome with his desire for her that he concocted a scheme whereby he could be alone with her and pour out his desire upon her. Yet as soon as he had accomplished this, his enjoyment vanished and his desire turned to hatred.
"Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, 'Get up and get out!' 'No!' she said to him. 'Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.' But he refused to listen to her. He called his personal servant and said, 'Get this woman out of here and bolt the door after her'" (2 Sam. 13:15-17).
When we act and live without God, no enjoyment is possible, for without him, who can find enjoyment? But with him, our enjoyment of life increases tremendously, for he is the source of all enjoyment in life because he is life (Jn. 14:6).
What can be said, then, in summation of all of this? What is the secret to enjoying life? It is to enjoy him who is life, Jesus Christ.
"For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?" (Eccl. 2:25).
But with him . . .
"Jesus answered him, 'If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him'" (Jn. 14:23).
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20).
May this ultimate enjoyment be to all who read these words, that they would know the Lord Jesus, him who is life and in whose presence only is found enjoyment of life, so that, at the end, they may hear him say:
"'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master'" (Mt. 25:23).
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