Sunday, February 15, 2009
Morning and Evening: 02/16
Sunday, February 15, 2009—posted by Jim Hendrickson
» Today's reading at Blue Letter BibleMORNING
Contentment? Everyday we are bombarded by messages from the world telling us we can find contentment by buying this or that product or service, seeking this or that remedy, meeting this or that person, traveling to this or that destination, and on and on it goes! Sales and marketing to make you feel dissatisfied so you will buy from the marketplace. But what is really being sold is discontentment!
This world is not our home and the stuff of this world can never satisfy the deeper longings of the human heart. If it cost the Apostle Paul some pain to learn to be content it is no surprise that we too must struggle to learn in whatever state we are in to be content. As Spurgeon puts it,
"it is not a power that may be exercised naturally but a science to be acquired gradually".
But how? I don't know for sure for I am a pupil in the College of Contentment like you. Romans 12:1-2 is one of those powerful passages that helps me understand the process to contentment. It tells me to present my body a living sacrifice as a reasonable act of worship; to not be conformed to the things of this world but be transformed by the renewing of my mind. When I do I find the joy of the Lord, the peace that passes all understanding and the sweet simplicity that comes from abiding in Christ. When I don't, I'm restless till I find my peace again in Him. I pray that one day, I too will be able to say with Paul, I've learned in whatever state I'm in to be content!
EVENING
Imagine, the third person of the Trinity lives in us, sinners saved by grace, willingly to abide in us in spite of our sin nature, our heart that wanders, and our moment to moment choices that grieve Him! When I consider His unmixed purity, truth, grace, and benevolence, I'm humbled and overwhelmed. Further that "there is no spiritual good in all the world of which He is not the author and sustainer, and heaven itself will owe the perfect character of its redeemed inhabitants to His work" makes me shudder to think what the world will be like when God removes the Holy Spirit along with the church.
Like Spurgeon suggests,
"let us revere His person and adore Him as God over all, blessed forever".
So much of this is a mystery! We see through the glass dimly. May we, the recipients of such love, grace, devotion and mercy be attentive to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit who reveals Christ and leads us into all truth.
Labels: Devotional, Morning and Evening, Spurgeon
posted by Jim Hendrickson|
1 Comments
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1 Comments:
Thanks for pointing out that contentment is acquired gradually. Being in a "a state of happiness and satisfaction" (i.e. contentment) is incredibly difficult for me to maintain because I often allow my "mood" to dictate my feelings. It's helpful to read, "They who yield to His influences become good, they who obey His impulses do good, they who live under His power receive good (Evening 2/16). I need to do a better job of yielding to The Holy Spirit in order for me to have contentment in whatever situation i am in.
Mario
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