Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Walking with Contentment

This will not be a daily occurrence, but I put forth another devotional thought, this time from Philippians 4.

Philippians 4:6
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Often we spend an excessive amount of time worrying about things that we cannot change or control. We claim that we trust God and that He is able to do whatever He wills, but then we try to do His job for Him. When we worry, we are actually demonstrating that we do not really trust God completely. We want think that we can manipulate the factors to accomplish a prescribed outcome, yet through it all, God wants our complete dependence and trust. He is good at His job. All of our concerns need to be taken to God, but remember, prayer is not simply for telling God what we want Him to do. We need to make sure that we regularly tell God why we love and trust Him.
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Philippians 4:9
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

This to me is an amazing statement. Paul was confident that he had lived in such a way that he could use his life and teaching as a standard for others to follow. He know that he was not perfect, as evidenced by other statements he made. However, he knew that he was passionately devoted to his God and that others needed to be devoted in the same way. We need to put into practice the lessons that God has for us to learn. When we practice the biblical principles we are taught, we can have true, God-given peace.
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Philippians 4:11
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

We often pray and ask God to meet our needs and then we try to find a way to solve our problems with no regard to what He wants to accomplish and how He wants to accomplish it. Contentment is something that people rarely experience. The world we live in pushes us to want more and more and more. Whether we have peace or persecution, plenty or nothing, God wants us to be content with what we have. Contentment shows that we trust that God knows what is best and is doing what He deems best. A lack of contentment reveals that we believe our plan is better than God’s. If I believe that God's plan is perfect and that He will accomplish His plan, then I need to be content with my situation, whatever it is.

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