Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Perseverance”
Our Bible verse for today: “But godliness with contentment is great gain; for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. 1 Timothy 6:6-8 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Learn to be content”
Sometimes perseverance involves settling-in, settling-down, and being content with what we have rather than constantly striving for more and more and more. The opposite of being content is being discontent, and discontentment is a serious spiritual malady in our society today. We’re conditioned by our culture to always want more and more. No matter what we have, we believe we need more, and that we are entitled to more.
Whereas contentment with a spirit of godliness is the sign of a spiritually mature person and leads to a happy and peaceful life, perpetual discontentment is a sure sign of spiritual immaturity and leads to all sorts of problems in life.
For one thing, it’s the primary cause of the rampant indebtedness that is so pervasive in our society. The reason people go so deeply into debt is because they don’t know how to be content with what they have.
Discontentment also shows itself in numerous other areas of life, from the job we have to the person we’re married to; from the car we drive to the house we live in; from our physical appearance to which version of the iphone we have; and on and on it goes. When we’re easily discontented we manage to find problems with everything, nothing is ever good enough.
People with a spirit of discontentment live unhappy lives. They often feel like they’re being cheated out of something and they’re frequently in conflict with others because of it.
Paul’s prescription for discontentment is to settle-in, settle-down, and be grateful for what you have. Because if you don’t, what you “have” can quickly become what you “had”. Whether we’re talking about your job, your marriage, your friendships, your home, your financial security, or whatever, be content with and be grateful for what you have because discontentment and ingratitude lead to conflicts, insecurity, bad decisions, and often, bad outcomes.
Sometimes persevering involves nothing more than being content with what we have – and then remaining content with what we have.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 