The Living Word: A Daily Devotional with Jeff & Dale from The Jenkins Institute
The Living Word is a daily devotional featuring Scripture and encouragement from Jeff and Dale of The Jenkins Institute. Each episode offers a thoughtful reading to coincide with the daily devotional guides from our annual devotional books. They are designed to help listeners begin or end their day grounded in God’s Word.
The Living Word: A Daily Devotional with Jeff & Dale from The Jenkins Institute
Week 29: Wednesday, Relax, Eat, Drink, Be Merry!
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The pleasure principle seems to permeate modern life. “Enjoy
yourself.” “Have fun.” “Have a great day!” These are things that are
said when we share plans with friends or family. Except for Sesame
Street’s Oscar the Grouch, who would ever desire that we have a
rotten day?
Welcome to Hearing God's Stories, a daily devotional on the parables presented by the Jenkins Institute. This is week 29, Wednesday, the parable of the rich fool. Relax, drink, be merry. Our text comes from Luke chapter 12, verses 16 through 21. Our author is Steve Lusk, and I'm Jeff Johnson. The pleasure principle seems to permeate modern life. Enjoy yourself. Have fun. Have a great day. These are things that are said when we share plans with friends or family, except for Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch, who would ever desire that we have a rotten day? While there's nothing wrong with enjoying life, the plentiful producer in this parable had enjoying life as his top priority, and he told them a parable saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this, I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. Luke twelve, sixteen through nineteen from the English Standard Version. There's a great difference between enjoyment of life as a goal and enjoyment of life as a byproduct of higher goals. When enjoying life is our primary goal, most of what we say and think revolves around pleasure. Pursuing pleasure promotes the fulfillment of selfish desire that only benefits us without the regard for the needs of others. Often personal pleasure comes at the expense of others. God provides blessings of relaxation, merriment, and sustaining food and drink to us despite the burdens of our broken world. It's easy to get so bogged down in being productive that we fail to appreciate what we have. The plentiful producer in Jesus' story took those blessings to an unhealthy and sinful level. Instead of pursuing a right relationship with God, these things became his ultimate goal. In the parable, God called this man a fool because he pursued pleasure and failed to consider eternity. Today I will make the wise choice to pursue a right relationship with God. In doing so, I will reap the fruit of an enjoyable life. Thank you for joining us for the Living Word. For more encouragement and ministry resources, visit the Jesus Institute.com and may God's richest blessings be yours. It's our prayer for you.