The Contentment Copout
March 17-18
When we study God's Word we need to taste it all, not just the parts we like. Walking in the neighborhood with spring bursting forth all around, I reflected on yesterday's entry on contentment. Paul's passage on contentment in Philippians chapter 4 came to mind:
I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess....Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.
Then I asked the Lord to search my heart in regard to contentment.
Interestingly, He took me to areas in which I should never be content.
First, with how deeply I know him...I should always thirst for Him. Psalm 42:2
Secondly, how willing I am to serve Him. John 12:26
If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you'll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.
Right at my feet in the road was a blue spray painted arrow pointing towards a house. I chuckled and wondered if I was to follow that arrow and go knock on that house and simply say, "Jesus loves you."
Contentment cop outs could cause the sloth to say, "I am content with the weeds in my yard, the paint peeling off my house, the extra weight around my belly and wearing dirty clothes everyday." Not caring for what God has given us reflects neither our appreciation for those gifts, nor a heart attitude of working as undo the Lord.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17
Remembering 1 Timothy 6:6, But godliness with contentment is great gain, we can seek His will concerning every aspect of our lives, readying ourselves for His reveal....ask Him to help with the clean up of the areas which don't bring Him glory....
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits (the thoughts and intents of the heart). Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed. Proverbs 16:2-3
Each day provides the grace for a new way to be content in the process of walking with Jesus.
