You’ve probably heard God being described as a God of justice, a God of mercy and compassion, a God of peace, a God of love, and He is indeed all those things. However, have you ever heard God described as a God of fun?

I recently listened to a teaching on this, and while it initially seemed like an unusual way to describe God, I had to ask myself why it seemed so odd? God is a Good Father, and He made this world for us to enjoy, to see the joy in, to have fun. Does any good father hate to see their child have fun?

Psalm 16:11 (ESV) tells us “You (God) make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Or as the GWT puts it “You make the path of life known to me. Complete joy is in your presence. Pleasures are by your side forever.”

And what does fun mean?  Well, my friend Google tells me it means “Enjoyment, amusement, light-hearted pleasure.” In other words, God’s presence is literally the most fun place to be!

We know that one of the reasons why Jesus came to Earth was to show us what the Father is like (John 14:8-11), and we also know that Jesus loved a good party. In fact, the very first miracle He performed on Earth was at a wedding party (John 2:1-11). Jesus also had a reputation for this. In Matthew 11:19 (NLT) Jesus, referring to what the religious leaders thought about Him, said, “The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.” You don’t exactly get that kind of reputation if you avoid fun, do you? Plus, reading through the Gospels, you realise just how witty Jesus is. It makes sense, after all, God created us with wit and a sense of humour.

So where has the reputation of God being a spoilsport come from? The problem seems to lie with two things: Our view of God, and our view of fun.

When we go back to the beginning, we see that everything God created was good (Genesis 1). Reading through books such as Leviticus, we tend to see all the rules and laws, forgetting just how many feasts God instructed the Israelites to celebrate! (See Leviticus 23). James 1:17 (NLT) states “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” Think about this, every part of our body that feels pleasure was created by God!

As is the pattern with most things, God creates something good, the devil seeks to pervert it (Acts 13:10, John 10:10). And so, God creates fun, the devil twists and perverts it. Jeff Lucas notes that when we don’t know how to have the right kind of fun, we will end up seeking for the wrong kind. The kind that causes us to abuse the bodies God gave us, to abuse our fellow humans whom God also formed in His own image, to abuse the world He created (2 Timothy 3:2-4). The kind that will inevitably cause us to end up even further away from the happiness that we seek. Isaiah 5:20 (BSB) has a warning regarding this, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter.” It is worth asking, is fun really fun if, when the lights go off, when the effects wear out, when reality hits, one is left in an even deeper darkness and state of despair than before?

On the other hand, the right kind of fun will bring joy and cause us to delight in God and the world God has made, in ourselves and in our fellow humans, all in a way that honours rather than debases. When we have the right kind of fun, we actually honour God and bring Him joy, much like the way seeing your kids having fun, giggling and laughing while playing can bring you joy.

God is not a spoilsport, far from it. Sometimes our background, particularly if heavy on legalism, may have given us a view of God that does not necessarily align to who God is. Or, it could even be the circumstances we are facing that skew our view of God.

Recently, I was really struggling with a couple of challenges. During that period, there were times that the suggestion of God being a God of fun would have left me doing an internal eye roll. However, as I reflected on why I felt that way, I realised that my view of God has changed somewhat. Not drastically, but subtly. I felt like there was some kind of distance between me and God, which made me to remember a question I once heard, “If God seems far, guess who moved?” What really struck me though was how subtle the shift in my view of God was, and some of the lies of the devil I had almost started believing about how God viewed me. I had to intentionally take the time to dwell on who God truly is, as written in His Word, and mould my view of Him from that, rather than from the circumstances I was facing, which is a trap that is so easy for us to fall into.

This incident made me realise just how desperate the devil is to distort who God really is to His children. If he is not working to make us question our identity in God, he is working to make us question God’s identity in our lives. And he has a ton of tricks at his disposal for that. As such, by weaving this falsehood of God as a boring spoilsport, we are tempted to seek thrill and fun elsewhere.

Again, a good read of the Bible will reveal that God is anything but boring. Being a follower of Jesus is also far from boring. If anything, it can be a bit too ‘thrilling’ sometimes! And the only sport God is interested in spoiling is the devil’s sport. God actually laughs at the devil’s antics, possibly because He knows the joke is on the evil one and his gang of bullies (Psalm 2:4, 37:13, 59:8).

You only have to look at the variety in creation, to realise just how fascinating God is. The number of marine species alone is estimated to be anything from over 200,000 to up to 2 million species, given that there are many more species yet to be discovered. And that’s just what exists in the water. Not to mention species in the skies and on land. Or is it the magnificence of the universe? The planets, the stars, the galaxies. Even the best works of art cannot compete with the beauty of nature. Not to mention music, food, drama, comedy, need I say more?

God loves to have fun with us. We are talking about a God who wants to send some money and decides to use a fish (Matthew 17:27) (sorry magicians, you aren’t the first to bring out a coin from ‘nowhere’); a God who sends a magnificent heavenly host of angels to a bunch of shepherds watching their sheep (Luke 2:8-15) (For a modern day equivalent, imagine the most popular artiste in the world today putting on an exclusive show with a line-up of the best musicians for a group of street sweepers); A God who decides to have some fun by walking on water to meet His friends and who invites the one who is interested to join Him (Matthew 14:22-29). Or the stunt Jesus pulled on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). Imagine these two guys asking Jesus, ‘Don’t you know the things that have happened here recently?’, and Jesus replying, “What things?”
I can’t help chuckling at that. I’m not sure I would have been able to keep a straight face then if I was Jesus. Perhaps you might have also personally encountered some situations where you looked back and thought, ‘God sure has a sense of humour’.

There are so many verses in the Bible that talk about how God turns sorrow into joy and mourning into dancing. Would a miserable spoilsport want people dancing and rejoicing? I don’t think so. Psalm 30:11 (NLT) states “You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.” Psalm 149:3-4 says, “Let them praise His name with dancing, making melody to Him with tambourine and lyre! For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation.”

And this beautiful passage in Jeremiah 31:12-14 (NLT), “They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem. They will be radiant because of the LORD’s good gifts— the abundant crops of grain, new wine, and olive oil, and the healthy flocks and herds. Their life will be like a watered garden, and all their sorrows will be gone. The young women will dance for joy, and the men—old and young—will join in the celebration. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing. The priests will enjoy abundance, and my people will feast on my good gifts. I, the LORD, have spoken!”” Doesn’t that show just how much God wants us to experience His joy in this life He has given us?

At the core of this is the unshakeable truth that God is a good, good Father, and just like any good Father, He loves to have fun with His children. As parents, we love seeing our kids having fun, but we don’t love it when that ‘fun’ can cause them to get hurt, or is at the expense of their sibling or friends. And so we discipline them when that happens. But that does not mean we never want them to have fun. As a good Father, God chastises us when we are wrong, but He also rejoices over us with singing. Zephaniah 3 aptly illustrates that. We shouldn’t hone in on one and ignore the other. Doing so may leave us with a warped idea of who God is, and consequently a warped idea of what pleases or doesn’t please Him. And that won’t do our relationship with Him any favours.

As we reflect on this, some questions we can ask ourselves, and take the time to answer are, Is what I know and believe about God true? Are there any areas where I need to readjust my idea of what fun is? How can I honour God’s desire for me to have the right kind of fun, the kind that honours Him and celebrates the way He has made me? What are the things that bring me true joy? How can I incorporate those into my life today, and on a regular basis, in a way that is a blessing to myself and others? How can I enjoy God more?

I pray that as we do this, our relationship with God will be reinforced by truth, strengthened by intimacy, and blessed with delightful fun and overflowing joy! Amen and Amen.

Image Source Here.