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Christian Contentment

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Intro

Welcome to Lessons for Life, where we seek to learn, love, and live the Word of God. Now here is James Long, Jr.

Defining Christian Contentment

Well, the lesson I would like to talk to you about today is contentment. There’s this quote that I’m fond of by Jeremiah Burroughs, and it goes this way that “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, that freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and Fatherly disposal in every condition.” Let me say that again. “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and Fatherly disposal, in every condition.”

Discontented People Living in a Discontented World

That comes from his book called the “Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.” And contentment is one of those very difficult things for people today. People are looking for contentment in so many different places. They look for contentment and in the possessions that they have. They look for contentment in the people that are around them, in their relationships. They look for contentment in their circumstances and inevitably, what will happen is because God has never wired us to receive contentment from those things.

God Has Wired Us to Find Contentment Only in Him

He has wired us to receive contentment in Himself and Himself alone. It’s so discouraging today. So many people are defeated today. So many people are struggling with depression and discontentment and insecurity today because they lack this viewpoint of Christian Contentment. So let’s look at this definition by Jeremiah Burroughs and look at it piece by piece.

True Contentment is Found in Christ

He says the Christian contentment. First of all, we should start with the fact that its contentment that’s based on Christ. It’s based on our Christianity. It’s based on faith. So very important to know that so many people are looking for the gifts of this world to be their contentment rather than the Giver of those gifts. The giver of those gifts is the Father by the work of the Son applied to us by the work of the Spirit. So it’s Christian contentment. Christian contentment is that sweet. So much of life is bitter.

True Contentment is Sweet, not Bitter

So much of life is discouraging. So much of life can be so defeating. So many people can have such down attitudes in life. And I want you to think about the fact that Christian contentment starts with sweetness. If your life is full of bitterness is a clear sign that contentment is lacking

True Contentment Comes from the Inside Out

Then it’s inward. That’s so important as well. We live in a world of fearful people, and as I’ve told you, fearful people tend to control things. They want to control environments or circumstances around them, and God has wired us only to control one thing. We’re called to control ourselves, and so in Christian contentment, we need to recognize that the Christian contentment is happening inward, not outward. It’s not something outside of us that is going to do it. It is Christ living in us that will do it. It is the Holy Spirit working as our counselor within us that’s going to provide that contentment, so it is sweet, it is inward and then it’s quiet.

A Truly Contented Person is Quiet

I will tell you that when I struggle with contentment, I’m sure you feel the same way, that when you’re struggling, when I’m struggling with contentment, what we find is that our mind just seems so loud and the voices seem so chaotic, and I can’t seem to get my mind to slow down. And it’s at that time where I need just to sit down and to be still and know God, know who He is and knows what He has done and know what He’s promised me. And, and just to quiet me. Even taking a passage like of passage of Scripture and just working through it word by word, or taking this definition by Jeremiah Burroughs as we’re doing it, what we’re doing is we’re taking it word by word and trying to think deeply about it. And when you think deeply about something and deeply more importantly about God and who He is and what He has done and what He has promised, it will quiet your spirit.

A Truly Contented Person is Grace-filled

So Christian contentment is that which is sweet, inward, quiet, and then it’s the gracious frame of spirit. It’s all based on grace. It’s based on the grace of God, the grace of God, that is a sustaining grace for us, a grace of God that is a saving grace for us, a grace of God that is a sanctifying grace for us. He is transforming you. And so if you can think about all the grace that He has poured upon you, the mercy, the grace, the kindness that God has poured upon you, that you do not deserve, that God is not obligated to do it. He has granted it to you as a wonderful gift. And as you live under the waterfall of that grace, and as you live under that, under that pool of grace and you’re saturating yourself day after day with that grace, I pray that it would pour in your life and then through your life and that it would create within you a gracious frame of spirit.

A Truly Contented Person Submits to God

And now the key elements here of this passage, of this definition, Christian contentment is that which is the sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits. Freely submits means that I am willing to do it your way, God. I submit to you. I am offering no resistance. I am listening to you. I believe you. I am trusting you. I am relying upon you. I am following your way. And so much of our discouragement in life and so much of our discontentment in life can be, is a byproduct of the fact that we choose to go our own way. We’ve done that right from the Garden of Eden. Our fore-parents, Adam and Eve, chose to go their own way and rebel against God and not submit to His will. And it’s caused all the difficulties in their lives and all the difficulties since.

A Truly Contented Person Trusts God’s Word

And we do the same thing. We do not freely submit. It’s not just submitting, but freely submitting. I willfully, I am joyfully submitting to you, God. So I freely submit and then I delight, which is huge. I delight in you, God. I take all my savoring, and my satisfaction is found in you. I can’t help but just delight in you, Lord. The psalmist at this point says that “Blessed it is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of mockers. But his delight is what in the law of the Lord. And in this law does he meditate day and night.” So we’re called to find our contentment and find our delight in the law of the Lord.

A Truly Contented Person Makes God Their Trust

But then in Jeremiah, Jeremiah takes that same type of illustration and God uses Jeremiah to say this in Jeremiah chapter 17 verse seven, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by its stream, and it doesn’t fear when the heat comes for its leaves remain green, and it is not anxious in the year of drought for does not cease to bear fruit.”

A Truly Contented Person Trusts God’s Infinite Wisdom

Do you see that this blessing person in Psalm 1 is delighting in the law of the Lord and the blessed person in Jeremiah 17 is delighting in God himself? And so we are called to submit and delight in freely and delight in God. And there are two characteristics of God that he talks about here in his definition. God’s wisdom, His infinite wisdom, and then His perfect love for you, His Fatherly love for you. And so as you think about it, the way that we learn to trust God is to learn about who God is and to learn about His infinite wisdom, His wisdom; His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, His ways are greater than our ways.

A Truly Contented Person Trusts God’s, Fatherly Love

And then to know Him as a Father who loves you and cares about you. And He’s with you; He will never forsake you. And now when you do that in every condition, and you apply those principles that it’s sweet, it’s inward, it’s quiet, it’s a gracious frame of spirit that is submitting freely and delighting in God and knowing that God is infinitely wise and He’s perfect in His Fatherly love for you. And you go into every condition that way, that’s where you can have peace.

What Causes Your Discontentment?

So, I pray today that you would experience Christian contentment. So as we end, I want you to think about what are the things in your life that hinder your contentment. Maybe there are things that you are turning to that you believe are going to satisfy you or secure you or give you some level of significance, other than Christ.

What Are You Going to Do?

What is it, the thing that you think you desperately need to make you happy? What is it? The thing that you want to control to get in your life? And I want you to think about those things. I want you to write those things down. And when you write them down, I want you to confess them to God and ask for His forgiveness. And I want you to see where Christ is to be your ultimate satisfaction and your ultimate peace. Blessings.

Outro

This podcast is entitled Lessons for Life with James Long Jr. We hope you’ve been blessed. For more information. Go to jameslongjr.org

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ABOUT JAMES AND LESSONS FOR LIFE
Are you longing to find answers to the deeper issues of life? Join Dr. James Long, Jr., a pastor, counselor, and university professor with over 25 years of experience. Hear James as he tackles some of life’s biggest questions and helps us find God’s solutions to life’s struggles. Learn the power of living by God’s grace and for His glory. Experience the joy of forgiveness and freedom found in Jesus Christ alone. If you are on a search for freedom, you will love being part of this conversation. Subscribe, and enjoy the show!

 

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