Dear You,
When you enjoy your life you bring joy to the One who gave it to you. That, my friend, is why the enemy of your soul hates what makes you truly joyful. Because he is out to destroy anything and everything that brings God joy.
So the enemy tells you that you aren’t allowed to rest—that you must work harder and harder for God.
He whispers that you are not permitted to receive gifts God created for your pleasure.
He distracts your soul with what can never fill it and then convinces you God is holding out on you.
Enjoy your life, friend. Hug your family. Watch a movie. Eat a marvelous meal. Sleep in on Saturdays. Watch the birds. Slow down.
When you do this, it’s not selfish. Instead it’s a way of bringing joy to the One who has brought all of this to you. Don’t let the enemy steal from God what is rightfully his—and that is you enjoying your life, embracing what he’s given, savoring each moment so that you “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8).
Will we have times of trouble? Yes. But even in those moments, isn’t enjoying what we can, in the way God intended, part of what sustains us? We’ve all known seasons of deep hardship when laughter seems to heal our soul more than anything else.
When we try to live with joy, the enemy accuses us: “Look how selfish you are, how irresponsible, how indulgent.” Can you imagine saying the same to a child on Christmas morning as she gleefully and gratefully receives the gifts she’s been given? Of course you wouldn’t. That is not the voice of love. Those are lies intended to break the heart of a Father.
Do you want to bring glory and delight to God today?
Then dare to enjoy your life . . . fully, freely, forever.
XOXO
Holley Gerth
{Inspired by Ps. 34:8, Ps. 35:27, Eccles. 8:15) and adapted from If We Could Have Coffee… (ebook)}
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Welcome to Coffee for Your Heart! The concept is simple: You’re an encourager so I’m asking you to pour out a little love with your words every Wednesday. The writing prompt I gave you last week was this question: “What brings you joy?” Now it’s time to link up your blog post or leave a comment sharing what brings you joy or how you brought joy to someone else this week.
Pretty please use this button in your post so others can easily join in with us {link the image back to https://holleygerth.com/coffee-for-your-heart-love/}…
The next writing prompt is this question: “Who inspires you?” Write a blog post on that theme and link it up here next Wednesday. If you don’t have a blog, you can post on facebook or simply leave a comment here.
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GIVEAWAY WINNER! If you linked up a post last week you were entered for a $50 gift certificate donated by www.wisedecor.com. They do fabulous custom removable wall decals. You could do your word of the year, a favorite verse, a quote you love–whatever you want! They just gave me one too and I love it.
Connect with WiseDecor on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Pinterest.} The winner of the giveaway is Cobbled Stones. Send me an email and I will get your certificate to you!
