Natalie is a gorgeous young women with a big heart, for God and others! I am so encouraged by her words and I hope you are too!
Here is a battle, taking place. It is a battle between the world and its promises of pleasure and fulfillment and God with his promises of righteousness and peace.
I am sure we have all felt the tension as we walk along this narrow pathway. When following God is not always a bed of roses and sometimes we just don’t feel like it. How easy it is to fall out of God-honouring habits and mindsets when we allow ourselves to think of our own comfort as greater than the praise of Jesus and the pursuit of his kingdom.
We see this battle in the writings of Paul in Romans 7:22-23,
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
The times when these verses speak the most to my heart, is when I am most pursuing self-gain above all else. I look at my relatively easy life, my pursuit of pleasure and comfort and I feel dissatisfied. Why? Because I have let other things take the place of God in my life I have chosen to worship the creation not the creator. When I decide that more time to myself will make me feel better, to binge watch Netflix will satisfy me, finding someone who loves me will ‘complete me’.
I trick myself into thinking that any pursuit other than God will bring me greater joy and satisfaction than his unfailing love. I am trying to seek my contentment in all the wrong places.
In my opinion this is the number one form of idolatry in our lives today. No longer do we just have to say no to bowing down to statues, we have to assess what areas of our lives are taking higher precedence over our worship of God.
What I want to question is do we actually get satisfaction from God; do we seek him to find our fulfillment and contentment?
A lot of the time I think that the simple answer is no. We are Christians, yes, and we want to follow God and please him but we get caught up in the obligation to follow God. We forget so easily that we have been set free. We are no longer tied to our old selves but are now under a new rule, with a new purpose for our life that goes beyond seeking our own comfort.
Romans 12: 1-2 says,
Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Moreover, we don’t need to be always seeking our comfort because we have a God who has assured us that we will never be separated from his love and he will provide all our needs for us just as a good father would provide the needs of his children,
Romans 8: 15-17,
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
So, what is seeking contentment in God really? I think it is seeking to worship him and only him and by that all other things will fall into place. We are assured of this in
Matthew 6:33,
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
We are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. Now I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound particularly comfortable to me. It sounds scary. However, I know that our purpose here on earth is not to be comfortable, so we will never gain satisfaction and contentment from a life pursuing comfort. We as Christians have the promise of God that just as we share in the sufferings of Christ (and sufferings there will be) we also share in his glory! We get to dance in heaven and celebrate the growth of His kingdom.
Everything we need is found in Christ. This frees us up to do the hard things, to talk to people, to challenge ourselves and to pursue God and his kingdom with everything that we’ve got because we can rest in the fact that he will make a way for us and provide for us.
As Philippians 4:12 says,
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Guest Author - Natalie Richmond
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