Precious Ones, immeasurably
loved by God,
The Bible has much to say
about contentment. May you have ears to hear.
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what
it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the
secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or
hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I
can do all this through Him who gives me strength. Phil 4:11-13
Then I read this a few days ago:
“Self-revelation
precedes divine revelation- that is a principle for both spiritual birth and
spiritual growth. The Christian who is going through struggle and failure is
the Christian who is being carefully and lovingly handled by his Lord in a very
personal way.” MJS
God uses self-revelation to
reveal our discontent, exposing our unbelief, our unrest and our striving to
live the Christian life by self- effort. Also revealed is a daily busyness in
our life that keeps us from His
life-giving Word. When we take vacations with the purpose of refreshing
and rest, we often return from vacation in need of a vacation. So to we blame
much of our discontent on our circumstances. Each of us would change many
things if we were presented the opportunity, beginning with our income. We tear
down houses and build bigger ones with bigger storage areas; to fill with more stuff
to store and we eventually forget we have it.
Make
sure that your character is free from the love of
money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I
will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
Then there is our discontent with our weight, our height, our
build, our spouse, the climate we live in, the car we drive… and a myriad of
other things in our life we are bent on changing, even good things in our life,
let alone how quickly we would rid ourselves of trials if it were in our power
to do so. We have created a god that is not God, but one who is required to
remove our troubles and bless us with riches and abundance. We expect Him to
answer the opinions we pray and take offence when He does not kowtow to our
demands, joining our pursuits.
We know that Joy is not found
in circumstances and is fruit of the Spirit, not fruit of self-effort. So, too,
contentment, though not listed as a fruit of the Spirit is something we are to learn,
it takes time. We must join God in His pursuits.
II Corint 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing
greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting
myself, there was given me
a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me
from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the
Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to
me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in
weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I
am well content with weaknesses, with insults,
with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for
Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
God told Paul, “No”.
Paul in surrender finds he
is more than content, he is well content!
I was quickened to consider
just what Paul’s circumstances were when he said he was ‘well content’? I
realized he was given a gift. A gift/thorn God allowed to bring Paul to
weakness. A gift he begged to return to the giver. OUCH! Can we know
contentment in distresses and persecutions and insults and difficulty?
God considered Paul’s
circumstances rich soil for teaching Paul contentment. I believe our
circumstances are rich soil for God to do the same in us. See what Paul says?
Amazing words: Most gladly, therefore, I will
rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may
dwell in me. Paul
says he will choose his troubles. We will only know contentment to the degree
we trust Him and we will only trust Him to the degree we know Him. There are no
short cuts. We mature by growth and growth cannot be hurried.
We must be willing to
embrace our trials like Paul to be “well content”. We are more likely to be
resisting, wrestling, refusing, rebuking the enemy, while lost in tears of unbelief.
We may see it as a lack of faith when our binding the enemy results in “no” as
our answer. Albeit, the real lack of
faith is our refusal to learn contentment in any and every circumstance. We
are focused on changing our circumstances instead of learning to dance with the
pain God is using in our life.
I have learned to be
content whatever the circumstances.
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it
is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well
fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength. Phil
4:11-13
This doesn’t leave
us room to keep living day after day in a restless discontent.
In this scripture Paul
speaks of learning to be content in any and every situation and shares the
secret he learned. A secret with power to redeem our trials to serve His
purposes. The word does not say that God will remove all the difficulties from our
life and then contentment will be ours. Paul states he has learned to be
content because Christ gives him strength and in II Corinthians 12, two little
words that are part of the secret, ‘My
grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Doesn’t this move you to tears? O the wonder of it
all!
We will know contentment even
in our tears, as we trust Christ to give us strength and God to give us grace.
He knows all about our weakness and it doesn’t stop Him from using every
situation for His glory and our good.
“Truly to rest
in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work because He works
in us both to will and to do. Entering into the rest of God is the ceasing from
self-effort and the yielding of oneself in full surrender of faith to God’s
working.” A.M.
Oh the beauty and power of
His Spirit indwelling us until we can rejoice in our weakness! Wow my feet are
dancing, Christ filling us with strength and delivering us and keeping us until
the tears we weep are sweet worship to our King! Hallelujah and blessed be His
name.
Great God, holy
perfection, You are all we could ever desire, thank You for teaching
contentment amidst tears. How gentle and kind You are… allowing me to know You more
and more. You give me grace and strength I will never deserve. Thank You that
‘all is grace’. The world so
quickly loses its attraction when we know You intimately and as You gift us with Yourself. Thank You for the
suffering You give. A gift that brings with it a freedom to prove You faithful
as I learn to be content. Only in You can we know what it is to be ‘well
content’. LORD give my sisters and brothers a desire to know You intimately and
learn to be ‘well content’. I boast in You, O Lamb of God, in Your name I pray
amen.
Learning contentment,
az
http://youtu.be/GhVldzsGEck
