Bloody Contentment

Here are several thoughts from the sixth chapter of The Greener Grass Conspiracy. 

In the Old Testament it was common for the punishment of idol worship was death- but today we worship idols all the time whether it is the small things in life such as relaxation or bigger things. The only reason we aren’t put to death for these is completely based on God’s forgiveness. The great exchange was Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and taking our place. 

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

It’s amazing to think that we deserve punishment and wrath for what we do/did and all God gives us is forgiveness. 

When we trust in Christ, we are given many things. The first being fellowship with God. Because our sins are forgiven we can have communication with God and talk with Him freely. In order to find contentment we need to spend a lot of time talking and spending time with God. We need to have that constant communication and relationship with God. Whether it be praying or reading more of God’s Word and meditating on it. Another benefit is that we are children of God. God saves us from our sins and adopts us like his own children. 

1 John 3:1” See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” Zephaniah 3:17” The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness;  he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” God is so glad for us to be his children. God’s love for us is amazing and we should show our love back to Him. 

Psalm 36:7 “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” God is there was a protector for us- for us to find comfort in Him.

Matthew 6: 26 “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” God is there to meet our needs for us—He cared enough to meet what we need in our life. 

A Final benefit is that God gives us eternal life. Jesus promises eternal life for those who trust and believe in Him. John 4:14 tells us so “…but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become n him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

We may have trouble or pain or sorrows in this world but that is all we will have because if we are saved, we have heaven to look forward to where there will be no pain or sorrow. 

“The gospel of Christ is the fountainhead of contentment in the gospel we have access to infinite blessings.” This is a basic reminder to me that I need to put Christ and His Word at the center of my life and to trust Him completely. 

When we complain and are discontent with our lives we are essentially saying that God isn’t good enough alone for us. We tend to think that God and something else will solve the problem but in reality Christ is all we will ever need!