Contentment

I read an article recently that said, Americans on average move every three years. We change jobs almost as frequently and probably our spouses more frequently than that. We are not content with our jobs, our homes, our spouses, our looks, our phones, our games. We are constantly changing everything. In fact, society today has become so restless that we are not even satisfied with the sex we were prescribed at conception.

With all the changes going on, and how fast life changes, how is it possible anymore to be content?

Think about the Apostle Paul. How did he do it? He had some really radical changes in his life. He went from high official in the church, with the authority to hunt down and bring to justice anyone who had the audacity to go against the authority of the Jewish faith and worship this Jesus Christ! He was a staunch zealot against Christianity, but – he found Christ, or rather, Christ found him – on the road to Damascus! See Acts 9:1-6 below:

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter again the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,”

“And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way (believers in Christ), whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.”

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined found about him a light from heaven:”

“And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul,

why persecutest thou me?”

Paul was found by Christ. From that point on Paul followed the leading of  God’s Word. He led many people to Christ and had a lot of followers and people who would help him throughout his ministry, but he also went thru many perils on all his preaching campaigns. He went through beatings, tortures, floods, hurricanes, imprisonment. He not only knew good times, he also knew bad. If someone tells you that if you become a Christian all things will be good and prosperous, don’t believe them, run the other way. Rain falls on the just and the unjust. With the Holy Spirit in you though, you can go through life’s cares but joy will always be there.

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

“I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

  “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Acts 9:11-13, 19

So, when your bank account is low, and when it is high; when you are in good health, and when your health is poor; when you are having full delight in your family and nothing is going wrong, and when you are having all sorts of problems with your children and nothing seems to be going right:

remember Paul, who went through tortures and storms and still managed to be joyful because of his relationship with Christ. Remember Christ himself, who, through no fault of his own was condemned to die, tortured, and hung upon a cross for the sole reason of preparing a way for you to be with Him forever (even as the people he was dying for, cursed and spat upon him).

Yes that Christ, the son of God, part of the God-head himself he gave himself for you. Try to remember this in the bad times, but also in the good. Be content with what you have and with the circumstances you are in. All these circumstances are bringing you closer to the person God wants you to be.

AE