Ironic
Do we deserve the "things" we have? Do we "need" them? How ironic?
It is very ironic to think of all the things that we have and yet they do not completely change what we want. You see there is always more to get and more to want. But are we focusing all of our energies on them.
I write this, speaking to myself.
We need to be content with God has given us. If you look in Philippians Paul is saying the same thing in chapter 4:11-12 (NCV), “I am not telling you this because I need anything. I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. I know how to live when I am poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty. I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens, when I have enough to eat or when I go hungry, when I have more than I need and when I do not have enough.” Now this is the important part of what Paul says, in verse 13 “I can do all things THROUGH Christ, because He gives me strength.”
There was a time in my life where my mother didn’t eat because she had to feed her kids. I know what it is not to have the things you need, notice I didn’t say want.
I know what is like to get kicked out of your house because your family can not pay the rent. I know what it is like to look into your mother face and see her try and explain to you why there is no Christmas for you this year.
You see we want things to better ourselves. God wants to better His Kingdom using us. God has brought me from that poverty to a richness I can not believe. And that is not a material richness but a spiritual richness. I have much more than I could have ever believed.
And that is because as Paul puts it, “I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens” and the key to that secret for me is constantly relying on Philippians 4:13 “I can do ALL things through Christ, because He gives me strength.”
God has provided this place and all that goes with it, for the glory of him, not the comfort of us. Let us learn the secret of contentment, and let the Glory of God be seen through our actions and our words. Let it be an attitude of the heart and may you be content with God’s blessing.
And this is a lesson that I constantly need to be learning everyday.
BE CONTENT
It is very ironic to think of all the things that we have and yet they do not completely change what we want. You see there is always more to get and more to want. But are we focusing all of our energies on them.
I write this, speaking to myself.
We need to be content with God has given us. If you look in Philippians Paul is saying the same thing in chapter 4:11-12 (NCV), “I am not telling you this because I need anything. I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. I know how to live when I am poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty. I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens, when I have enough to eat or when I go hungry, when I have more than I need and when I do not have enough.” Now this is the important part of what Paul says, in verse 13 “I can do all things THROUGH Christ, because He gives me strength.”
There was a time in my life where my mother didn’t eat because she had to feed her kids. I know what it is not to have the things you need, notice I didn’t say want.
I know what is like to get kicked out of your house because your family can not pay the rent. I know what it is like to look into your mother face and see her try and explain to you why there is no Christmas for you this year.
You see we want things to better ourselves. God wants to better His Kingdom using us. God has brought me from that poverty to a richness I can not believe. And that is not a material richness but a spiritual richness. I have much more than I could have ever believed.
And that is because as Paul puts it, “I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens” and the key to that secret for me is constantly relying on Philippians 4:13 “I can do ALL things through Christ, because He gives me strength.”
God has provided this place and all that goes with it, for the glory of him, not the comfort of us. Let us learn the secret of contentment, and let the Glory of God be seen through our actions and our words. Let it be an attitude of the heart and may you be content with God’s blessing.
And this is a lesson that I constantly need to be learning everyday.
BE CONTENT
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on Sunday, April 24, 2005 at 11:24 PM.
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