How can a Christian know when they are crossing the line from simply delighting in life and overindulging?
Enjoying life vs. decadence - where is the line?
- Thread starter Lamar
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Delight is God-centered. Indulgence is self-centered.
Interesting question. Do you have examples of what you consider delighting in life vs overindulging?
Simply delighting in life means being happy with what you have, being content, counting blessings, etc. Overindulgence means materialism, being excessive, wasteful, etc. I think of people who eat, spend, or exercise too much. The opposite of overindulgence - being stingy and/or unnecessarily too frugal - is not good either.
when it start getting hard to stop whatever it is, time involved is excessive, god convicts your conscious.
Sadly, with generational decline into sin, it seems like that line is erased. Some say Holy Spirit conviction, which can happen, but seems to happen less & less.
I would suggest a more simple lifestyle. My reasoning is the less that clutters your mind, the easier it is to hear the Spirit when He deals with you.
Get rid of as many distractions as possible, & use that time to pray & fellowship with God.
Where is the line between enough and too much?
Proverbs 30:7–9 — New Living Translation (NLT)
7 O God, I beg two favors from you;
let me have them before I die.
8 First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
9 For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.
The answers so far seem to be simply generalities and rather ambiguous.
Is the answer up to us to figure out???
Proverbs 30:7–9 — New Living Translation (NLT)
7 O God, I beg two favors from you;
let me have them before I die.
8 First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
9 For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.
The answers so far seem to be simply generalities and rather ambiguous.
Is the answer up to us to figure out???
Enough is exactly what God gives. Too much is what you acquire apart from God.
It's different for everyone. Some people are gifted to make money. They should use their gift to promote the body. Others have other gifts. They too are for the body.
In many ways it is for us to figure out how God is leading us individually. But however He works it out, we should be content. And we should always be rich towards God.
We need to study the Word of God so that we are able to separate (through the Holy Spirit) the truth of God’s Word from the lies of the devil.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
- John 14:26
I wish people would stop using that as the sole basis for what not to do. I hear people using that argument to condemn perfectly mundane activities(literally square dancing with retired people twice my age) that are not excessive timewise, when they don't have any scripture to back up their view that it's sinful.
1 Corinthians 10:31 - Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
F
FollowingtheWay
Guest
I believe one has to look at the motive in one’s heart. Is the intention to bring God glory as His image bearer? Or are we after our own fame, fortune to our credit…. Pastor was talking about this a few Sundays ago…. When Gideon said
“When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’ ””
Judges 7:18 NIV
Was Gideon elevating himself? It sure seems possible because after we read about how he didn’t want to be a ruler but wound up doing exactly what he said he wouldn’t.
“But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.) Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.”
Judges 8:23-24, 27 NIV
Are we elevating God in all we do? or are we elevating the self like perhaps Gideon? We would be wise to do a Heart check before we charge the field wherever life takes us.
“When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’ ””
Judges 7:18 NIV
Was Gideon elevating himself? It sure seems possible because after we read about how he didn’t want to be a ruler but wound up doing exactly what he said he wouldn’t.
“But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.) Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.”
Judges 8:23-24, 27 NIV
Are we elevating God in all we do? or are we elevating the self like perhaps Gideon? We would be wise to do a Heart check before we charge the field wherever life takes us.