Contentment is a disposition of the heart that freely and joyfully submits to God’s will, whatever that will may be.
Altrogge fleshes this out by saying that a contented man “doesn’t murmur and complain about his season or circumstances of life and doesn’t grumble about the things he doesn’t have. A contented man isn’t jealous when he sees others prospering, because he knows that God is always good to him.”
Do you know yourself to be weak? Inadequate? Not up to snuff in intellect, family background, educational opportunities, financial resources?
Get ready.
You are just the kind of person God loves to use. The power of God—power to kill sin, power to walk in the fullness of the Spirit, power to speak courageously on the job, power to love the unlovely, power to lead many to Christ, power to make your life count—such power is for inadequate people.
Acknowledge your frailty to God. Look to the Savior. He embraced the weakness of the cross so that you and I, weak sinners, can experience the blood-bought power of God—now.
Read the whole article on Finding Strength in Your Weakness
All of us grew up in less-than-perfect families. As a result, we pass on the negative emotional atmosphere of our family-of-origin in both direct and indirect ways. All this makes Christian parenting very challenging! With that in mind, Dr. Eric Johnson provides some valuable wisdom for parents in this message entitled: How We Pass on the Emotional Atmosphere of Our Family of Origin. It was given at our SEEDS Parent Chat (Feb, 2010) and can be downloaded below:
How We Pass on the Emotional Atmosphere of Our Family of OriginListen | Download
The confident hope of the Christian faith is that God has done, is doing, and will do something about the problem of evil and suffering. He defeats evil at the cross, releases “aid workers” at the resurrection, and promises total peace at his return.
I have learned in my own life and by watching others that asking people to give up their idols without filling up on the life of Jesus Christ may make them religious but it will also make them miserable (and miserable to be around). Instead, the gospel is calling us to fill up our hearts, our lives with a passionate love for Jesus Christ and this in turn will minimize the power of lesser pleasures (idols) in our lives.
How does this impact the way we teach, preach, and do discipleship? How does this change the way we counsel one another? How does this change the way we disciple our own children? Your thoughts?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this message from Darrin Patrick on contentment. It’s awakened some things in me and how I need to come to the end of my own strength and depend on Christ as my strength. For when He is my strength, I’m content, but when I am my strength, I’m prone to arrogance or despair. If you’re struggling with contentment, I strongly encourage you to watch this!
God gave us our imagination. I think he wants us to use it more in our fight against sin. Here’s what I mean:
Today I pictured my heart like a battlefield. I imagined myself sitting on a white horse with Jesus as my Warrior King going before me in battle. As the enemies of my flesh crowded all around me, Jesus charged ahead and fended off each one with his mighty sword. I thought of Revelation 19:11-16 and reminded myself that Jesus is a strong Savior who has rescued me from the power of sin and one day will rescue me fully from the presence of sin. Thanks be to God!
God gave us our imagination. When appropriate, I encourage you to slow down, picture the truth of Scripture in your mind and fight against sin.
Stephen Altrogge gives a great definition of contentment in his new book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence:
