God has been made a party pooper...most people look at the "don'ts" in the Bible, all the stuff God wants you to avoid because He is out to make sure that you do not enjoy life. The Bible is almost understood to be a recipe for boredom, tedium, and monotony. But why would God create us as living instruments of pleasure if He wanted us to avoid it? Why would He create us this way and then make all these laws that close us off from this incredible spectrum of pleasure and enjoyment of life? That's why many people run from God..."He doesn't want me to have any fun. He doens't want me to enjoy life." But you know what? This pleasure away from God can't even touch the MINIMAL level of what it means to enjoy life in God. God created you for pleasure, and He's the one who knows how to teach you how to live.
How DO you live in the full enjoyment of God? Well, you've got to have PASSION. A person who is passionate about something enjoys the moment more than someone who is apathetic. What happens when you give your life to God is the more passionate you fall in love with Him, the more passionate you are about Him. The more passionate you are about the things of God, the more He bursts in you greater passions to live life to the fullest.
You also have to put OTHER'S before yourself. You can enter a moment with all the passion in the world, but if you have no value for people, you find yourself giving into a temporary pleasure that destroys your long term joy. We need to realize that God's ultimate gift is people. If we give our lives to success or prestige or power, in the end, they will leave us empty. We need to get deep relationships, intimate relationships where we know eachother and are there for eachother no matter what. We need to love people like God loves us...unconditionally. Jesus said, "If you will live your life placing others above yourself, even as I have place you above myself, you will live in the joy of God, and you will be enjoying life toward overflowing." Love- that's what causes life to be so God-filled and overflowing with joy. It's not natural to love like this-to put others above yourself, but you can through the power and love of God.
SO, if you will engadge life with a passion for and out of God, a love for Him, and a love for living, and allow a value system that goes outside of yourself to others, you will begin to make the kind of decisions that will bring you not pleasure in the moment, but pleasure throughout life.
You will still face tragedy in life. You'll say, "Yo God, what's going on?" BUT, if we look at things through God's eyes, even the most painful, unfair moments can be filled with joy. You start to look at the big picure, see things from Eternity rather than from the moment. God promises that no matter how tough life gets, no matter how difficult it becomes, no matter how disappointing it may be, no matter how many times you fail, no matter how much you suffer- God is working everything to the good as you are called to His purpose and follow Him in love and passion.
It's no coincidence that God created you with the emotions to love, care, laugh, cry. It's no coincidence that God created you a spiritual being with the ability to tap into His unlimited resource of goodness. It's no coincidence that God gave you senses to see, toutch, hear, smell, taste. God created you to enjoy Him, to be enjoyed by Him, to enjoy life to the fullest. Jesus is inviting you now to step into His pleasure and enjoy life...will you go?