CONTENTMENT

Just this week I asked a friend how I could pray for him, he replied: “That I would be content.” This is what God gave me.  Maybe it’s apropos to you as well.

TRUE CONTENTMENT is in complete opposition to the world.  The flesh and its lusts CAN NEVER satisfy - what we accomplish and what we achieve - they are insatiable appetites.  Life's ONLY TRUE contentment is in LIVING FOR and OBEYING Christ.

 True contentment comes through Christ: walking with, and in obedience to, Him.  Nothing else matters; it is all rubbish and will count for nothing in eternity.  It's a hands breath, a vapor that is here today and gone tomorrow. Only what's done for Christ will last.

 And, what is done must be for Him and not us - that is the struggle for all of us, I believe.  For whom do we do what we do?  Is it for us, because it makes us feel good? (I don't think that's a bad thing – but it doesn't count for eternity.)  Only what we do for Him will count for eternity, therefore that is our true satisfaction and ONLY contentment.

 Today my Bible reading was in Ecclesiastes 7: 2-4. “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of pleasure, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.  … 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.”

 What is the preacher saying?  That when a person lives for pleasure they only think about the now, which is a vapor. But if we hang around funeral homes (lol!) we realize life is brief and what we do must count for “the forever.”  Pretty powerful stuff!

Personally, I have found that my only true satisfaction and contentment is in Christ.  I love my wife; she is God's best gift to me.  But I could live without Sheryl, I could live without Joel and Noelle and the grand-children, and my best friends.  But, I could never live without Christ.  He is my everything.  He is my true satisfaction and contentment.  And whenever I'm not content or satisfied it is because I have moved away from Him; He has gone nowhere.