How to Be Content in Life

 

John 10:10 is probably on every believer’s list of scripture favorites. It’s the words of our Master Jesus, and he teaches us, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” In this verse, Jesus Christ tells us exactly why he came to the earth. He came to rescue us and to give us a more than abundant life. Most of us would be fine with just an abundant life, but our Heavenly Father deals in the exceedingly abundantly above anything we can ask or think. So, there you have it. More abundant it is! And this is good news indeed! Our problem is that our world has become bombarded with hate, disappointment, mistrust, lies, cruelty, and cynicism. Sadly, it’s rubbed off on many of us, and we no longer believe or stand on the Words of our beloved Savior. We have to change this and turn it around as quickly as we possibly can.

Very simply put, a worldly mindset is one that is shaped and molded by the world. By this, we know that when the Bible refers to the ‘world’, it is defining an anti-Christ consciousness that refuses to honor God. When a mind is blinded in this way, faith eludes it. A worldly mindset can only accept and believe what it perceives through sight and other senses, so it only believes what the systems of the world feed it. This kind of mind is dangerous for the believer, because it is a mind that is disobedient to God’s commandment to walk by faith and not by sight.

The Struggle

As believers, many of us are struggling with John 10:10 because we won’t come to grips with the degree to which we have allowed the world to influence us. We’re not following God’s blueprint, and we want everything on the double. We have refused to put on the Spirit’s fruit of patience, which is God’s requirement. We’re discontent with life because our Heavenly Father doesn’t coddle our refusal to get our heads in the game. He’s committed to our spiritual maturity in Christ, and our excuses will not work.

The discontentment really sets in, and in some cases turns to extreme sadness, when we simply won’t take the initiative to turn things around through our faith in God. In 1Corinthians 3:10(NKJV), the Apostle Paul said, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.” In this verse, God is teaching us through Paul about His amazing grace. He’s teaching us what we are able to accomplish through His grace and love. Just like Paul, we are master builders who are empowered by God to build on the foundation that our Master Jesus laid for us. We accomplish this by using our entire lives. In other words, our very lives should be the strong, solid layers that we are laying on the foundation of Christ. Jesus laid the initial foundation with his finished work, and our lives should be built on it by following God’s Word.

This is a construction phase that will continue until he returns. Our lives are our building material, and we offer them up to God so He can make them what He desires them to be. We know this because God tells us in Romans 12:1 that our whole lives must be presented to Him as a living sacrifice. Our lives are to be holy and blameless before God, and He is the One that will work within us to achieve all this.

Build a life

A foundation is the load-bearing part of a structure or building. This means that it can withstand pressure, and it can support the weight of other hefty material, structures, fixtures or furniture that may be placed on it. A foundation will not collapse when storms come, and strong winds blow. It will continue standing because it is made well. Our lives must be this kind of foundation or else we will not be able to steward God’s blessings in the way He expects, and most importantly, our house will not be in order when our Lord and Savior returns.

We cannot receive spiritual strength from the world. It’s impossible. We must build our lives from God’s Word, and this requires us to use the building material of the present. We can’t try to build a life from our pasts or from the future. Jesus Christ teaches us in Matthew 6:25-27(NLT), “25That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”

We cannot be so dependent on the world’s customs that we’re lost when it comes to living by the light of Christ. But the truth is that some of us don’t have a clue how to build a life. We can change this by doing as Jesus Christ instructs in Matthew 6:31-33(NLT), “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” To lay a foundation of contentment in life, our faith must grow and continually increase in our Heavenly Father. This must come before any other person or thing.

Work with what you have

All we have is right now. If gratitude and thankfulness for this very present moment escapes us, we are in trouble. Sadness, disappointment, insecurity, doubt, and all the other defeating emotions, have their root in fear. They increase because we are not living in the moment as Christ instructs us to do in Matthew 6:31-33. Instead, we’re worried about what happened in the past or in many cases, we’re worried about not having a need fulfilled in the future. We must wake up and recognize that the worry, angst, fear, and doubt that we indulge in this moment is laying the kind of foundation we don’t want for the future. It’s a shaky foundation, and it is not sturdy enough to hold all that God has in store.

Contentment is the choice to clothe ourselves in gratitude to God for the blessings we have right now. He is a faithful God, and He deserves every good thing from us. Paul said in Philippians 4:11(NLT), “Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.” We must be committed to learn this golden lesson as well. He said in 1Timothy 6:8(NLT), “So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.” Heavenly Father doesn’t mean that we should stop wanting greater blessings. He expects us to understand that this moment is all we have, and we should make the most of it with gratitude and contentment before Him; He deserves this. He’s blessed us wonderfully through Christ, and if we’re not as thankful as we should be, we need to pray that He will open our eyes to His goodness. Contentment isn’t having everything we want, it’s the confidence that we have all we need in Christ, and when we need more, we’ll have that too. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“How to Be Content in Life”, written for time2heal ©2022.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! 

The Greatness of God’s Promises

Matthew 12:38(NLT) tells us, “One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.” It is important for us to understand the mindset of anyone that would ask the Son of the Living God a question like this. During the time in which our Lord and Savior walked the earth, the Pharisees were a religious group of men that were considered the upper echelon of the Jewish community. They were leaders, teachers, lawyers, and other men of high rank and wealth. Through his unfathomable wisdom, power, and goodness, our Master Jesus agitated their base of authority and influence, and they tried to trip him up and discredit him in any way they could.

They were always unsuccessful in their attempts. Jesus Christ knew exactly who they were. He knew their motives. So, in Matthew 12:38, when they asked him for a sign to demonstrate his heavenly authority, he knew they were an evil generation who refused God’s Son and didn’t have God’s love in their hearts. He had already performed many miracles. They witnessed some of them and heard about others, but they still would not believe in him and give him his rightful place of honor and authority.

God tells us in 1Thessalonians 5:5(NLT), “For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.” Our identity is in Christ because we have given our lives to God through him. God has saved us from the kingdom of darkness through His beloved Son. 2Corinthians 5:19-20(NLT) states, “19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” We have the privilege and duty to share the Good News about Christ with others, and he has empowered us to do this with his boldness and authority.

Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross to save us from death and darkness. His love came into our hearts because we had faith in him. We weren’t here when he walked the earth. We have faith because we believe and trust God’s Word. The earth is spinning. It rotates on its axis relative to the sun every 24 hours, and it takes us with it. We don’t feel the earth spinning, because God designed the laws of the universe in such a way that we feel our feet firmly planted on the ground. However, none of us require a sign to know that the earth is moving. We have faith that it is doing exactly what God designed it to do, regardless of how and what we feel.

In like manner, our salvation in Christ isn’t dependent on what we feel. It is dependent on what God has told us in His Word. When Jesus Christ was tempted by satan in the wilderness, Matthew 4:4(NLT) tells us, “But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” God’s Word is life to every believer, and we must be ever so careful that we do not behave as the Pharisees did and want signs to affirm and confirm the greatness of God’s promises. 2Corinthians 1:20(NLT) declares, “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.” We must believe God’s Word and trust it with all our hearts, and that is all the guarantee we will ever need. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.,

“The Greatness of God’s Promises” written for time2heal ©2022.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! 

The Desires of Your Heart

 

Psalm 37:4(NIV) “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

The desires of your heart can teach you a lot about the faith and loyalty God desires. These two, faith and loyalty, are very important lessons of God’s love, and they are especially important to our relationship with Him. Our Heavenly Father tells us that He is a Rewarder! That is indeed good news! A rewarder is someone who rewards. It’s someone that compensates, and compensation is a little different than a gift. Compensation is awarded to a person for his or her efforts. In many ways, it is an exchange, because we are putting forth energy and effort to achieve a standard or service that has value. It is of such value, in fact, that it is deemed worthy of reward. When it comes to His children, God is the One who rewards, and He is the One that sets the value and worthiness of exactly what it is He will reward. He said in Jeremiah 17:10(NLT), “But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

In our careers, jobs, and chosen professions, we understand how compensation works, and we understand it very well. It wouldn’t occur to us to put in one or two weeks of work and not be compensated for it. We trust our bosses and the companies that employ us to dole out our paychecks and to do so on time. We also understand that if we refuse to expend the necessary energy and effort to fulfill our end of the employment contract between us and our employers, we will not get paid, and we may even be terminated. So, most of us understand both sides. We understand our duty to carry forth what is expected of us, and we also understand the company’s obligation to compensate this.

God is perfect in every way. He is THE REWARDER, and He is not slack at all. He knows everything there is to know about us. He knows our motivation and our hearts. He knows when we’re doing things that are of value and warrant rewards, and He knows when they don’t. Our responsibility to God is infinitely higher than our responsibility to anything or any human being in the earth. He tells us in Hebrews 11:6(NKJV), “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” When God tells us that something is impossible, we had best believe that it is. We cannot please Heavenly Father without having faith in Him. Remember, He’s the One that sets the value of what He compensates. He is letting us know that faith has infinite value. He treasures our faith, and we must have faith in Him to please Him. By understanding this, you and I have a gauge for measuring the importance of our faith in God, and we also can be confident that if we’re as committed as He requires, He will reward us.

What are God’s rewards?

The life we receive when we come into the world is a blessing in and of itself. We don’t have to do anything more than breathe the breath of life in order to be abundantly blessed, because we’re here, we’re alive, and we have everything we need to love God. So, we’re blessed when we come here, but as we grow and mature, so do our needs and desires. We need things to facilitate and express more of who we are. Our desire for more comes as our minds and hearts seek fuller expression. Our responsibility as God’s children is to make sure that our needs and desires are in harmony with the example of Christ. We must make sure that we are seeking to expand and increase according to the example Christ has set for us, and according to God’s plan and purpose for our lives. We must never forget that He’s the One with the plan (Jeremiah 29:11), and Proverbs 19:21 tells us that although we can come up with all sorts of plans ourselves, it’s God’s purpose that will always prevail.

So, when our plans don’t seem to be working, and we’re not receiving the blessings and rewards we desire most, our responsibility is to take a closer look at our plans. We must consider that they may not be lining up with the goodness God has in store for us. We must also consider the possibility that something in the treasury of our hearts is hindering our blessings, because we’re not believing in a way that fully supports our faith in God.

God wants us to come to Him for what we need and desire. 2Corinthians 3:5 tells us that He is our Sufficiency. He’s the Source of all blessings and goodness. 2Corinthians 9:8 assures us that His grace is extravagant and defies all dimensions of our thoughts and imaginations. He is able to make this grace abound towards us so that at any time, at any point in life, we will have all we need to do good in the earth.

Rewards are God’s specialty. They are His blessings, and He rewards those that are diligent in their pursuit of Him. Our Heavenly Father is the perfect and most excellent Rewarder, and He’s designed creation to corporate with our faith. This earth experience is all about growing in our relationship with God, and as we increase our believing in Him through Jesus Christ, the rewards flow. They are God’s way of showing us 1) how much He loves us, 2) when we are on the right path of pleasing Him, and 3) they tell us that it’s time to release the things that are hindering our growth so we can make room for greater blessings.

We can see the excellency of God’s rewards throughout all aspects of life. Many of us have been taught to believe that God wants us to suffer in lack and loneliness, and that He is punishing us for whatever reason and doing it by withholding His blessings. Nothing could be further from the truth. 1John 1:5(NLT) declares, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” God is good all the time, and there is no instance in which He doesn’t want the best for everyone. To receive all that He has in store for us, we must grow in Christ. This must always be our motivation—growing in the example of the One that is the blueprint for humanity.

Baby humans don’t remain babies. They grow into adult humans, and by this we learn that growing and maturing are instruments of God’s plan. Growing and maturing is God’s way of helping us transform into the people He destined us to be. He will not force us to do this, and most of us don’t do it voluntarily. We grow a little bit at a time, and our desires give us the extra push to pick up the pace. When we recognize a void in our lives, we also recognize the need to fill it. This is when we should begin to pray more, and to ask God questions about how we can move ourselves closer to the thing we desire. His answer will almost always involve spiritually growing in Christ so that we produce more of the Spirit’s fruit.

1Corinthians 13:7 tells us that God’s love never gives up, never loses faith, and it continually endures, no matter the circumstance. His love never fails, and it knows no bounds. It swells. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger, because the nature of God’s love is to expand and increase, and this is the impact it has on everything and everyone it inhabits. Because the nature of God’s love is increase, we can have confidence that this is what Heavenly Father desires for each of us. He wants us to increase according to the greatest potential that He’s set for us. And this great and full potential is contained in the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. We must rise up to the standard of God’s love, this is what our desires teach us. Therefore, we should never give up on what we desire but strive to see what God sees and follow where He leads. When this is our aim, our faith and love towards Him will be wonderfully rewarded. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

“The Desires of Your Heart”, written for time2heal ©2022.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! 

He Is Always with Us

Whether we realize it now or later, there will soon be a time where we will have to make an extremely important decision. We must choose to either love the Lord and be totally committed to Him or love the world and all that it represents. The times are pressing, and it’s a now or never kind of urgency. The choice has always been ours, and the Lord will not force us, but it would be to our extreme advantage to walk through the door our Heavenly Father has opened. We must do it before the door is shut, then it will be too late. Times will continue to become more and more perilous; we should want every assurance that we are covered under God’s safety and that we can take refuge in Him.

The psalmist paints a picture for us of how we must lean on our Heavenly Father and trust in what He will do for us when we remain committed to Him. Psalm 143:7-10 (NLT) says, “7 Come quickly, LORD, and answer me, for my depression deepens. Don’t turn away from me, or I will die. 8 Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. 9 Rescue me from my enemies, LORD; I run to you to hide me. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.” The troubles we experience in life can seem overwhelming. Some of us suffer mentally, physically, and emotionally. We know the devil uses traps and tricks against us, and when we’re overwhelmed, we are sometimes overcome with doubt. This can make us feel like going in the opposite direction of God’s love and protection, but we must resist, because doubting God should be the very last thing we should ever do.

If you’ve been on this Christian journey for a while, you’ve learned that tribulation presses you to draw closer to God. Tribulations and troubles can reveal that we have been walking in the opposite direction of where God desires. We must pray as the psalmist did, that God will show us where to walk, because the path He has laid before us is filled with His blessings. Our tribulations and troubles can teach us that we have been holding back, and we need to give ourselves totally and completely over to God through our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

For many of us, it’s takes the endurance of struggle before we will see the unwavering, unconditional quality of God’s love. Many of us have had elders that have encouraged us during tough times. They’ve told us, “With God on your side, you will never fail.” They tell us this because they’ve experienced His faithfulness for themselves. They’ve walked and talked with God through tremendous obstacles and adversity, and they know firsthand that He cannot fail. They’ve tried Him for themselves, and they know that with Him all things are possible, and He will never disappoint.

When we don’t trust God through our tough times, we separate ourselves from Him because of our lack of faith in His love for us. Hebrews 11:6(NLT) tells us, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” Our faith is required to please God. It’s how we show Him that we love Him. So, we must understand that doubt is an enemy of God.

Heavenly Father wants us to know that as the psalmist teaches in Psalm 143, God is our Refuge. He hears our cries and answers our call, but we have a responsibility too. God will keep us as we show ourselves wanting to be kept. We must fill our minds and hearts with His Word, pray continually, and spend time with God. We must follow His guidance and go only where He leads. He wants us to walk in the power and authority of Christ. He did not design life to beat us down. He designed it to give us the privilege and enjoyment of walking with Him every day. When we are committed to Him in the way He commands, we don’t ever have to worry, because He is always with us, and He will never leave or forsake us. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“He Is Always with Us”, written for time2heal ©2022.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!