The Gift of Life

 

I think there’s one thing I’ve learned more the older I get. That’s not to take life for granted. The more you look at the opportunities in life and how fortunate you are, the more you realize how special it is. You look at people who don’t have the opportunities you do and you feel fortunate. Maybe this is a perspective that only comes with age.

I have to admit to being, traditionally, a bit of a pessimist. I don’t always see the positive side of things. But I feel like there’s something of a shift in my perspective taking place. I have many times looked at the many things we endure in life as bothersome. But the interesting thing is that after going through many difficult times I have a new appreciation for all that is good in life. It seems the hard times and difficulties gave me a new perspective on the good. For example, you never appreciate being healthy so much as you do after having endured a long illness. You never appreciate financial stability so much as you do after going through financial difficulty. It seems the things I used to take for granted, I now appreciate.

I look at life as more of a list of opportunities instead of a list of obstacle, as an amazing gift and not a tremendous burden. And that alone makes life more enjoyable, when you see it that way. One thing that can easily stand in the way of our success is the perspective we have. We often create our own obstacles. We never start something because we think of all the reasons why it won’t work. It’s the negative mindset that is often our greatest enemy. Because often the obstacles aren’t even real. We just make them up in our minds, through fear and negativity.

So, knowing what I know now, I have chosen to approach things a little differently. I believe that I won’t regret so much the risks I did take. I believe that I will regret the risks that I didn’t take. Maybe, mostly, because the risks that I did take weren’t really that risky. I just thought they were. How many times do we do, or not do, something because of the perceived dangers? I also think we highly underestimate the role of failure in our lives. Really, all of our list of failures are a list of lessons from which to learn. And that’s why failure is important in our lives.

Maybe me saying, “I’m afraid of failure” is kind of like me saying, “I’m afraid of learning”? We would easily state the former, but we would never state the latter. Another change in perspective, I guess. So, things look different from different angles. Maybe we don’t need to always change the thing we’re looking at. Maybe we just need to change the way we’re looking at that thing. Sometimes we miss the gift because it looks different than we expected.

…Let’s go deeper

, and that the Knowing the gift that life is, we also know that the gift is given to us by God. Like any gift given to someone, He wants us to enjoy it. We often forget, in the midst of everything, that we should be enjoying what God has given us.
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AV Psalms 91:16: “With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” Psalm 91 starts out by us dwelling in the secret place of the most High and it ends up in Psalm 91:16. This person God will satisfy with length of life and show him His salvation. God is with those who look to Him. When our heart is truly reliant and dependent on Him we can know and be assured of His presence, protection and provision.

AV 1 Timothy 6:17: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;” The riches we enjoy in this world are also to be separated from our dependence. While we enjoy these things, we don’t depend on them. Our true dependence and help comes from the Lord. It’s when we get our eyes off that reality that we run into problems. We sometimes overestimate our own importance. But, really, we can’t do anything without Him.

AV Psalms 16:11: “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is] fulness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for evermore.” The true joy is found in His presence. We sometimes lose our joy because we get out of His presence. It’s then we realize that we need to shift perspective back onto Him and the true riches He has waiting for us in Heaven.
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AV John 16:24: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Jesus’ word to His disciples shows us His heart towards us as well. We can petition the Father in Jesus’ name the things we desire. But this also goes along with abiding in Him. In the previous chapter, John 15, Jesus also talks about ‘If we abide in Him, and His words abide in us, we shall ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us’. Why is this? Well, for one, if we are truly abiding we won’t be asking things outside of His will. Abiding means our desires our in line with His. So, the desires of our hearts will also be His desires.

AV John 10:10: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.” The final thing to remember is that Jesus came to give us an abundant life. We can have this abundant life when it begins in Him. This is where it starts. The problem comes when we set out to enjoy these things without Him. As He said ‘He came that we might have life’. We can’t even have life without Him. Much less the abundant life. But the life starts in Him. And the abundant life grows as we learn to walk in Him.

AV Ecclesiastes 2:2: :”[There is] nothing better for a man, [than] that he should eat and drink, and [that] he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it [was] from the hand of God.”

AV Psalms 91:16: “With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”

AV 1 Timothy 6:17: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;”

AV Psalms 16:11: “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is] fulness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for evermore.”

AV John 16:24: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

AV John 10:10: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have lifeey might have [it] more abundantly.”

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