God Wants You to Enjoy Your Life

by Rick Warren

As a Christian, you can enjoy life because your conscience is clear. You can enjoy life because you are secure within God’s love. You can have fun and laugh in church. You can enjoy friends who don’t manipulate you because they are learning to be like Jesus, and that means they are learning to look out for the interests of others.

Unfortunately, there are many people who do not want to let God into their lives because they fear he will make them give up anything that is fun. They think that to become a Christian is the same as saying the party’s over, that to be spiritual is to be miserable.

People are frantically looking for fun fixes, but that means they operate under the law of diminishing returns. They spend more time, more money, and more energy to get less and less of a thrill. They go around asking, “Are we having fun yet?”

The truth is, God “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17b NIV).

God wants you to enjoy life!

Talk About It

- Why would God want you to enjoy life?

- How do you respond to the truth that God’s love is extravagant, lavish, and beyond comprehension? 

Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America's largest and best-known churches. In addition, Rick is author of the New York Times Best Seller The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church, which was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th century. He is also founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for ministers.