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!

The King's Madness

In the fifth chapter of The Greener Grass Conspiracy, the author refers to several lies in our life that we need to deal with. When we have discontentment in our lives it starts with all the sinful lies that we believe about ourselves, about God, the world, and anything else. The important thing to learn is to be able to recognize these lies as we encounter them.

There were several lies mentioned in this chapter.
LIE: God is withholding from me.
     Many times we ask God questions about why can't this happen to me or why can't I move up higher in the world of questions like this. When we don't get what we want, we blame God for withholding the good things from us. But in reality, God sent the greatest gift for us- His son, Jesus Christ. He gave us the best He had and didn't hold it back and not send anyone/thing to help us with our sin nature. He gave the best gift of all!

LIE: God owes me.
     Many times we think we are giving God things by serving Him in different ministries and come to the belief that somehow God owes us for that service. It's really the other way around- God is the creator of everything- and that including me and you- and He has power over us and we are the ones that owe Him. God doesn't owe us but He does give rewards when His servants obey Him.
Matthew 6:3-4 "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

LIE: If I get it, I'll be happy.
     So many times we think that if I just get what I want I won't complain anymore or ask for anything else. This is not true- "Because God loves us and wants us to find our satisfaction in Him, he won't allow us to be satisfies." I find myself thinking like this at times "if only...or if this happens...then I'll be happy" and true happiness doesn't come through things or through people but only from Jesus.

LIE: I know what's best for me.
     We need to realize that we are not the leader/ruler of our life. God is! God is our leader and will direct our life for us because He knows what the best for us is. David got it right in Psalm 23: 2-3 "He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." If God let us lead our own lives, then who knows where we would end up at. I'm very thankful that God is in control of my life and is the leader of it. I just need to remember to let Him have the control of my life and stop telling him how to rule my life or what I "need". He is my heavenly Father and He already knows what I need so why try to counteract Him.

I Worship My Television

In reading the fourth chapter of The Greener Grass Conspiracy there were several things that stuck out to me.

God should be receiving our whole hearts and most of the time we are just giving Him pieces of it. God wants us to give Him our hearts and to follow Him and to trust Him for everything. A lot of the times, me included, people just give certain areas of their life over to God and try to figure out the rest of it by themselves. We are better off if we give it all to God.

"Discontentment is the result of misplaced worship." Our misplaced worship is anything that we give our heart to that is not God and place our happiness is that thing. Tim Keller says "If anything becomes more funamental than God in your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol." Everyone knows what idolatry is but it's so easy to forget that it incluses anything that we place before God- even the small things in our lives that we value more than God.

We need to take action against all the idols in our lives and this requires us to change our thinking and our behavior. If we try to fix our thinking and behavior and remove the idols from our lives- this will be the first step toward contentment. Instead of demanding the things we "need" from God we need to pray in the right weay in stating what we desire but that God knows what we really need and give it to God to meet them in His own way and in His timing. So many times, we are impatient and demanding things from God. We need to just relax and leave it up to God to work things out the way He sees fit.

This doesn't mean we can not enjoy things as a gift from God, but we have to remember not to let it become an idol in our lives and let it take away the worship away from God. Because when it becomes an idol in our life then it is wrong and not a gift from God.

To sum it up, God gives us gifts to enjoy here on earth but we must remember that they are gifts and not to control our lives and take the place of God. We need to not let them be idols in our lives because then we are placing our trust in those things and ourselves and not where the true trust should lie which is in God alone.

So What Am I, A Monk?

In reading the third chapter of The Greener Grass Conspiracy (the titles of my posts are the title chapters given in the book) I found a couple key points I wanted to highlight and that I found useful in remembering:

Philippians 4:11 "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." If we are truly content in God than we don't base things on life's circumstances and the constant changing of them.

Contentment is inward, not dependent on circumstances that are always changing in our lives. It is an issue of the heart and we should examine our inward motives and determine where our heart truly lies. Our identity and contentment should be wrapped up in Jesus Christ because He is the only one that matters in our life.

Often times, especially during hard times, we tend to prepare for what God is going to "drop" on us. We know that He will work things out but in the meantime we often act like this. When we act like this it is not honoring to God.

The key is to learn to be content in God's will- whatever that may bring us. Whether it be good things or bad things we need to remember that God is in control and has a plan.

         "Whate'er my God ordains is right:
          Here shall my stand be taken;
          Though sorrow, need, or death be mine
          Yet I am not forsaken
          My Father's care is around me there;
          He holds me that I shall not fall,
          And so to Him I leave it all."

I'm Not The Center of The Universe

In reading the second chapter of The Greener Grass Conspiracy I was reminded/learned new things that are important for me to know so that I can continue to seek contentment for my life. I've found it hard to be content many times in my life with different circumstances that I'm coming across and am reminded to take it day by day in working on being content. There are several things that I have learned for this chapter. The first part of the chapter was such a good reminder of how many times we see ourselves as the center of the universe but in reality, God is and should be the center of the universe. I know I often see myself as more important at times, but in actuality, I'm not. God made all of creation and us and we should be putting Him in the center of our lives instead of ourselves.

"Discontentment happens when I attempt to displace God from his rightful place at the center of the universe." This statement is powerful and so true. We often take God out of the equation or put Him on the back burner of our lives because we think we have everything together and under control. I know I do, and it's wrong. God is in control of our lives and we should seek Him in order to gain direction for our lives.

This paragraph stood out to me and explains contentment really good and speaks for itself.
          "Contentment is created in the shadow of the majesty of God. I become content when I see and treasure and embrace the glory of God. I find contentment when I grasp the fact that life is not primarily about me and my comfort and my happiness. My soul is satisfies when I stop trying to elbow my way to the center of the universe and instead rejoice in and worship the God who really is at the center of all things."

"Our goal is to be content for the glory and honor of God." This quote should be our goal in our life and that is what as Christians we should be striving for. We should put our trust in God and let Him help us ini our daily walk with Him and to learn more about Him.

Acts 20:24 states "But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

The main point that I came away with this time was that God has control of our lives and can do with us as He pleases. I mean after all He did create us and our goal is to bring honor and glory to Him in all aspects of our lives. Often times I think that this fact is forgotten and overlooked so it was a great reminder to me to remember that God is in control of the universe and not yourself.

Contentment

I am currently reading The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence by Stephen Altrogge. So far I have just read the introduction and the first chapter and I'm excited to read the rest of the book. A couple of things that stuck out to me was that he talked about that circumstances aren't really the things that cause us to be discontent in our lives. It is our heart attitude. A lot of times we have a bad attitude of what we don't have or what we can't accomplish in our lives right now and that defeats us because we let it affect our heart and become discontent. True contentment is found in Jesus alone. "If you follow Jesus, you will have every spiritual need met." In Philippians 4:11-12 Paul talks about how he learned to be content in everything. "Not that i am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." This blew me away. So many times I am discontent in my situations and things that I would love to happen and get down that they aren't happening right when I want them to. These verses show us that it is possible to be content in our lives but that only happens through Jesus and us asking for that help. A motivation that the book gives is this: "Godliness + Contentment = Great Gain" It's so true! We can have great gain through Christ and learning to stay content in the things in our lives. This chapter definitely spoke to me and made me realize that I need to seek God and give Him the things that I'm not content with in my life and ask Him to help me to be content with where I am in life and to work on the things that I need to be improving. Contentment is a part of life where I think everyone struggles in and it's comforting to know that God is right there with you to help you through it and to bring along side friends and mentors to help encourage you along the way.

The Start of a New Year!

Well I am finally done with my college career!!! I'm very excited to what the future for me holds! It seemed like finishing college would never come and now it's here. Life is moving on- which is a good thing! I recently had a birthday and am now the big 23! It's hard to believe I'm that old already. I never really make new year resolutions but this year I'm going to read my Bible more and get more into God's Word. I would love to learn some new things, such as some line dancing or just fun random things. Another resolution that I'm working on is to move out and find my own place. And I'm sure there are other resolutions that I will come up with along the way. I'm very excited to embark on the next part of my life and all the challenges and fun times that are to come. I'm still working  at the Preschool and loving it! I'm so fortunate to have a job that I love to do!
Happy New Year Everyone!