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Chapter 3- enJOYment

There are simple things in life that give us enjoyment. Is enjoyment bad? Absolutely not! Ecclesiastes 5:18-19,

"Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept this lot and rejoice in his toil, this is a gift from God."

Solomon is telling us to enjoy life! God gives us blessings, its ok to enjoy them! People all around the world who don't seek God will never find eternal enjoyment! What we shouldn't do is make this enjoyment an idol, as most people do. God should be #1 in our lives, other people should be #2, we and finding our own enjoyment should be #3! There's a nice analogy for this that you might have heard in a song before!

J- Jesus

O-Others

Y- You!

When we follow JOY, then we will experience true enJOYment! Again, sometimes our enjoyment can get out of place. Sometimes our enjoyment can be bad, or can steer us away from Christ. Here are some things of the world that seem harmless, but can turn you away from Christ.

Video Games

These are good, sometimes...

It depends on the games you play. If there's a game you want that has a lot of cursing and nudity, the decision you have to make is "What will I benefit from this? Is it good or bad?" This is where the Wisdom God gives us comes in handy. If you're able to turn off bad things like cursing, do it! Like Call of Duty, in most games, you can turn off the cursing, or you can turn down the voice volume, if you can, DO IT! If you know it's bad, why do it? Now if you go into Call of Duty with an angry heart, then you probably shouldn't play it. We shouldn't do anything out of angry ambition. Now let's say that you go into Call of Duty in a happy mood, all the bad stuff is turned off, then its fine to play it (as long as your parents permit you to!) But it gets bad whenever you play too much of it, robbing God's time. Any video game, good or bad can become bad if it robs God's time. So here's the list you should go by before playing a new video game.

1. Is it beneficial? Is it good or bad?
2. Can I turn off the language, nudity, or blood?
3. Will this game frustrate me, giving me a rude attitude towards my family?
4. Will this game rob all of God's time?
All these questions are good to ask before playing a video game.

TV

This can be good, sometimes...

You should learn from your early years in life that you shouldn't trust anything you watch on TV to be true, without properly testing it and having basic truth that it is true. Many people can get steered away from the real truth because TV leads them into false facts. National Geographic, Discovery Planet, the News and all these channels should not be your 100% reliable source. I'm not saying that they're bad, but that they occasionally twist the truth to make it believable for the audience. Here are some tips when watching these types of shows.

1. Is this show standing on a Biblical authority?
2. Can it be trusted as a reliable source for information?
3. Does it affect your view on life at all?

Now let's say you think those are boring, so you turn on ABC, Disney channel or channels like that. You might watch shows like The Middle, the Goldberg's, or shows like so. Those shows are most the time harmless, but then you get into the harmful shows all about homosexuality and things like so. Disney channel has even taken the approach and continues doing that. It seems harmless, but can really affect your life in ways you can't even see! Anything you watch on TV can and most likely will affect your views on life without having a firm foundation in the faith. So here are some tips to help you when watching shows.

1. Is this show beneficial, good or bad?
2. Will this influence my life in negative ways   
3.  Does it go against what the Bible says is right

If you put these basic questions for anything, and one of them answers no, should you be doing what it is?

1. Is it influential, good or bad?
2. Does it go against what the Bible says it right?
3. Will this rob my time from God?
4. Will this give me a bad attitude towards others?
5. Will this steer me away from God?

I was at one of my friends houses, and we were talking about a video game. I told him how I was still trying to beat a certain level, than he said,

"I tried beating it, but I was getting too angry, so I stopped playing it because it was robbing my time from God."

Wow! We should apply this to all of our lives doing anything! If it's not beneficial in a good way at all, it's making you angry and its robbing God's time, should you really be doing it? I'm not a judge for your life, but think about it for a second. Imagine that you're trying to beat a video game. You come across the last boss level, you've been at it for 4 hours, but you can't seem to get it. Your attitude changes and you yell at anyone who tries talking to you. You finally beat the level, satisfied you beat it. But now what? You wasted 14,400 seconds of your day on a game you no longer will play now that you've completed everything. It might feel good that you completed the game, but at what cost? Imagine all the good you can do in 14,400 seconds! Now I'm not saying that trying to complete a video game is bad, but it's how you accomplished beating the video game that is the bad part.

A while back, I devoted a day to completing the 2 final levels in a video game. After an hour or 2, I completed the 5th level. I spent so much time trying to do the last level that my attitude changed completely! I yelled at anyone who tried talking to me, I threw my phone a few times (I punched a lot of items in the house) and more. I finally decided that what I was doing wouldn't benefit me one bit. I'll get a tiny sense of completion, but it won't last long! I decided to give up on the game that damaged my week. What is something in your life today that is robbing time away from God?

Thankfully, Christ gives us the freedom to play video games, to watch movies and to read good books. He gives us His gift of eternal life, and on top of that, gives unto us things we can enjoy! Like all things however, they can indeed turn into a bad habit. But thanks be to God, who continually gives us gifts, and keeps forgiving us, though we sin every day!