Addressing the attendees at a recent seminar, speaker Michael Reeves said, “What we love and enjoy is foundationally important.” He went on to explain what we enjoy is far more significant than our outward behavior because it is our desires that drive our behavior. Since we want our behaviors to reflect the holiness of our Savior, I find it well worth considering and recognizing what it is we enjoy most in life.
We will consume our time and attention with those people, hobbies, thoughts, and activities in which we take the greatest joy. So, it is what we enjoy most that will most shape and define our lives. This is why it is critical to be intentional in how we choose to spend our time and to guard our attention well. As we begin, ask yourself, what do you enjoy most in this life?
Until we are devoting our lives to Christ, we cannot live for Him. That seems obvious, but consider how many people are trying to live for Christ yet have no genuine commitment to Him. I’m sure you know people like this. Most of them sit near or even next to us in church each week. Perhaps we are that person who professes Christ with our lips but denies Him with the way we live. If everyone in the world who proclaimed Jesus as Lord would live as if that were true, our world would not look the way it does.
There is a wise saying that states, “What has your attention has you.” To put it in our terms here, what we enjoy determines who or what we will worship. So, what do you enjoy? Do you enjoy spending as much time as you possibly can immersed in God’s Word or praying to the One who gave His life for yours? Do you enjoy humbly serving others in the name of Jesus and surrendering your dreams for the sake of God’s Kingdom? Or do you enjoy the simple and perhaps extravagant pleasures of this world?
Is your time spent on the pursuit of happiness, success, security, freedom, entertainment, and comfort? Our culture will tell you these are the most important things in life. Everyone chases after these things, and it is all too easy to get caught up in the race for them. But this is not the way for a disciple of Jesus. Our calling is to be different and set apart (1 Peter 2:9). If we pursue the things of this world, just like everyone else in the world, we will look like everyone else in this world.
Our life is not our own; we have been bought for a price, and that price was the life of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:18-20; 1 Peter 1:15-19). Jesus surrendered all He was so that, through His death and resurrection, you can have life in Him (John 3:16). There has never been a greater demonstration of love, and there is nothing more worthy of our time, attention, and devotion. Nothing compares to Jesus.
So, I ask again, what do you enjoy most in life? There is nothing more enjoyable than being in the presence of our Savior and King. Make that the pursuit of your life. Give Him all your attention, all your effort, and all your hope. Make Him the object of your dreams and the goal of everything you do. What you enjoy determines where you will place your trust and worship, and that will determine where you will spend eternity.