Purely Content

Well my oh my...today has been buuuusy. I woke up...tired. I had church which went well. Actually my serious part of the post today is on my notes for the sermon...I completely enjoyed it and hope you will too. After church we had a luncheon and we all got to fellowship with one another which really was enjoyable. Philip and I cleaned up all the dishes, food, and church afterwards and that was nice. Then the Jagts came over to our house for the afternoon while we did an intense clean-up. We cleaned for several hours and it remains completely clean! It's so beautiful. :D Anyways, we all got to hang out and do fun cleaning and then we had guests arrive. 

Every year we have our annual Labor Day bonfire and we invite a ton of friends over. Let's see if I can list most of them: McAtees, Jagts, Miss Terri, Woods, Nightengales, Riches, Chauvins, and Grossos. I think that was it...sorry if I missed anyone. Anyways we all had a blast all night long...played and talked and hung out...went back in the woods, played basketball, smoked cigars, ate good food, drank alcohol....lol, it really turned out to be a huge party and so much fun! Rachel and I didn't even leave the house till about 2am to get here to stay the night at the Potter's (we're still house/animal sitting). After a while it was just Mia, me, Jon, Matt, Kyle, and Tony all hanging out and telling spooky stories...geeezzzz...there were some really scary ones!! I found myself truly frightened...and that's what one of my near-future posts is going to be about: fear. So anyways...yup there was that. Now I'm just chilling and waiting for the headache to leave so I can get some sleep. :)

In the meantime! The Scripture for this sermons was Philippians 4:11-12 "I am not saying this because I am in need, for 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." and Hebrews 13:5 "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.' "

To covet is to have an inordinate (sinful) desire...a desire that is not in keeping with God's revelation. God has made us as humans, to be a people with passions, and so it is not the passion itself that is sinful but rather it is the twistedness of the passion that is sinful. We want things that are not ours to be had such as another man’s wife, property, life, position. And we begin to see that contentment is a state of mind, arrived at by confidence in the Lord Christ, in which one’s desires are confined to one’s lot whatever it may be at any given time.  

To covert is to want overly that which is not yours. We were created to want and desire, but when it becomes a sinful desire it has become coveting. Gratitude is one way we can overcome coveting. If we are finding ourselves happy and grateful for the blessings which we have received then why would we look outside of that to Christ and complain and covet for that which we do not have? Coveting is very easily the root that produces the "fruit". It is the secret sin behind and fueling all the others. Wanting or desiring that which is not yours would motivate you to disobey your parents...seek out another god...murder...steal...lie. So yes, it can easily be said to be the background sin that pushes the others forward. 

Thou shalt not: covet...so in response to that...
Thou shall: learn contentment

Contentment is the absence of sinful desire and an ability to find satisfaction and sufficiency in where God has placed us at any given moment. Contentment does not mean that we do not seek to better our situation, or to improve upon our lot, but it does mean that in any given situation in which divine providence has brought us into at any given moment we are able to find a certain tranquility. Contentment is something you gradually learn through your Christian walk. It is a learned trait. Even among the greatest of Christians it is hard. Paul, the apostle of Christ, had failings in this and had to learn it. He was the one who wrote the passage in Philippians that we looked at earlier. 

Our culture today is one that simply screams discontentment at us...it daily encourages us to always want more or better things or situations. We must learn the sufficiency of God's grace. This also requires a steadfast trust in God and His ability to provide. In 1 Timothy 6:6 we see that godliness is closely tied in with contentment. "But godliness with contentment is great gain." They marry those two ideas together and make them work off of one another. 

Contentment is not just resignation to our fate (if it is bad). It's not just throwing up our hands and saying "whatever" or "oh well...it's just that way." We can be purely content with our circumstances as well as trusting in God and not dwelling in abuse or allowing others to ill use us or get away with sin. We can be content without being flat-out passive. It is a hard balance but God has given us the ability in Christ to master it perfectly. 

Christ strengthens us with contentment and the ability to have a good balance of contentment/passiveness and not putting up with any crap or abuse. We are to be able to do and deal with all things and situations through Christ. Even when we are without needs we continue to need and require the sufficiency of our Father. 

So here are five steps to encouraging the bud of contentment to bloom in your garden of godly virtues:
1) We must be mindful of God's providence and ordering of all things (Psalm 96:1-2 and Psalm 145).
2) We are to find our satisfaction in Christ and the divine promises God has made to us (2 Peter 1:4). 
3) We are to practice gratitude; we must be mindful of how God has truly blessed us.
4) We must have knowledge and confidence that someday God will fix all wrong in the world; He isn't asleep and someday He will right all wrong. God is good and faithful all the time (2 Thessalonians 1:6). 
5) We are to remind ourselves of the fact that we are not deserving of anything that we think we are deserving of. 

When the law calls for us to not covet, it calls for us to be content and satisfied. It is a good reminder that we are desperately in need of a Savior...Christ is our only source of righteousness and salvation. He has fulfilled the gift of contentment for us and so He has done and accomplished what we are required to do since we fall short of it. This is another reminder to always be seeking to be more like Christ and His perfection of contentment. With pure contentment there is no coveting.

Thank you for reading.