Day 35 — Receive, Enjoy And Share
Opening Prayer
Generous God, open my eyes to the gifts that come from your hand. Teach me to receive them with thanksgiving, enjoy them without being mastered and share them freely for the good of others. Fix my hope in you, the Giver of every good thing. Amen.
Headline
God gives good things to be received with gratitude, enjoyed with freedom and shared with generosity.
1 Timothy 4:1-5
4 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
1 Timothy 6:17-19
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Comment
Yesterday, Paul showed us that enjoyment is governed by love. Today, he gathers the week’s themes into three simple movements: receive, enjoy and share. Together they offer a Christian answer to two opposite distortions of pleasure.
Indulgence treats a gift as though it were a god. False asceticism treats the gift itself as evil. Paul rejects both. Some teachers were ordering people to abstain from things “which God created to be received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:3). The Christian response to created pleasure is neither grasping nor rejection, but grateful reception.
Paul can say this because “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:4). Thanksgiving is more than a polite addition to enjoyment. It reconnects the gift to the Giver. It reminds us that pleasure is received, not seized; entrusted, not owned; good, but not God.
The gift is also “consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:5). God’s word teaches us what a gift is for, and prayer places our use of it before him. Gratitude therefore works together with temperance. We learn to enjoy what God gives in its proper place, in a way that does not master us or diminish our love for others.
Paul’s rejection of compulsory abstinence should not be turned into pressure on people with medical, psychological or dietary needs. Eating disorders are complex illnesses, not signs of spiritual failure. His target is teaching that makes rejection of created goods a mark of spiritual superiority. The body needs compassionate care, not judgement or coercion.
In chapter 6, Paul turns from receiving to enjoying. God “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17). Enjoyment is not an embarrassing concession. It is part of God’s generosity. Yet a good gift can still capture our hope, so the wealthy are commanded “not to put their hope in wealth … but to put their hope in God” (1 Timothy 6:17). We are free to enjoy a gift when we no longer require it to secure our life.
Finally, enjoyment opens into sharing. Paul calls God’s people “to be generous and willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18). Gratitude turns our attention upward to the Giver; generosity turns it outward to our neighbour; temperance keeps the gift in its proper place. This is thankful generosity: receiving God’s good gifts with joy and making their goodness available to others.
This week has not been a campaign against pleasure. It has been an invitation into truer pleasure: gifts received rather than worshipped, desires trained by grace, freedom directed by love and abundance opened to others. In God’s hands, enjoyment can become worship, welcome and witness.
Why does God want me to hear this today? Perhaps because I am tempted either to demand pleasure or to distrust it. God offers a freer way. I can receive without grasping, enjoy without placing my hope in the gift, and share because my deepest security is in the generous God who gives me life that is truly life.
Reflect
- Which of God’s gifts do you find difficult to receive simply and thankfully?
- Where are you tempted to place your hope in a gift rather than in God?
- What could you enjoy more generously by sharing it with someone else?
Action
Practise receive, enjoy and share with one ordinary gift today. Receive it by naming it as God’s provision and thanking him. Enjoy it attentively, without hurrying towards more. Then share its goodness: invite someone, offer a portion, give a resource away or let the refreshment you receive make you more available to serve.
Closing Prayer
Generous Father, thank you for the good things you richly provide. Keep me from worshipping your gifts or rejecting them in fear. Form in me gratitude, temperance and generosity. Teach me to receive with thanks, enjoy with freedom and share with joy, placing all my hope in you. Amen.
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