Contentment

Intro

We are continuing in our series, Word to the Wise.

We all need a little more wisdom!

We’re studying through some of the topics found in the book or proverbs, the wisdom book.

Wisdom - the God’s way to live in God’s world.

I’ve found a more probing question to be, not is something right or wrong.

But is it wise.

I do a lot of things that aren’t technically wrong, but def not wise, not the best thing to do.

and we don’t want to just get by, we want to learn to live the best way in God’s world.

Uncovering the fullness of life God has promised us!

that doesn't happen without some wisdom along the way.

Whose said this before,

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

It’s usually a phrase we used as reserved acceptance.

Eh, it’s just how things are.

Sometimes, just the best we can do.

How else do we navigate the junk.

But it opens a great thought.

How do we accept what is in front of us, BUT while simultaneously hoping for the future?

How can we come to grips with who we are, while also knowing that there is better and more that God is making us into?

One word,

Contentment.

It is a concept that is talked about very little but can change so very much about how we perceive and live life.

Our wise teacher from proverbs talks about it a lot.

Proverbs 19:23

The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

Rests Content.

Rest well. Go to bed smiling, mind free to sleep. No tossing and turning. Worrying, anxious.

That is the picture of contentment, pretty nice right!

This word can almost bring up a negative vibe.

Just settle in, may as well be content, it is what it is.

Instead thought! It isn’t settling, it’s learning the secrete to being settled.

A settled heart, soul and mind.

Still.

In the hebrew, this word is defined as satiated and full.

Contentment is living with that view of life, all of the time!

I find myself complaining about and upset with something, most of the time.

I’ll tell on myself, One time I went through drive through

I ordered a bacon egg and cheese biscuit. I drove off and had sausage.

You would have thought my world had collapsed.

I threw the bag across my car...

(I know some of you are judging…)

Having we all had overreaction to insignificant things??

I mean, we live in a time and in a country where we can buy food through a window of our cars!!

It’s like the more we have, the less we are satisfied.

Solomon also wrote another book called Ecclesiastes.

He spent years of his life trying to find meaning a pleasure outside of God and it recounts his finding.

Ecclesiastes 1:2

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

Ecclesiastes 5:16–20 (Message)

This is bad luck, for sure—naked he came, naked he went. So what was the point of working for a salary of smoke? All for a miserable life spent in the dark?

After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live:

Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live.

We all have this tension and struggle.

Finding enough in the right now.

If not, we are always miserable now matter what.

It’s more about getting the right things in right in life and everything always going right for me.

Proverbs 15:16-17

Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.

Proverbs 16:8

Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.

Proverbs 17:1

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.

Proverbs 28:6

Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.

A proverb from a guy named Agur:

Proverbs 30:7-9

Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

This isn’t learning to want the bare minimum from life,

It is living in a way the live life for the right things.

If our lives aren’t feeling settled, satisfied, rested, full...

I wonder if it could be that our lives are out of balances and the wrong things have become the main things.

It’s easy to lose sight of what matters and almost begin to devalue the lives that we have been given.

Never enough, never satisfied...

What does true contentment look like lived out?

PERFECT PEACE IN IMPERFECT SITUATIONS

Seems crazy to think about, but there is a peace that can rest on us and in us, not matter what happens around us.

We can’t always control what happens to us, and life can’t be as unstable as the latest thing that happened.

There is more surety and security than that!

2 Thessalonians 3:16

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

This kind of all the time, no matter what peace only comes through God!

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I understand more the anxious about everything not peace in everything!!

It comes down to where is your confidence?

When we trust in and are confident in our God, peace is the product.

Fear and and worry is the product of confidence in something that isn’t secure.

Are you confident that God is your provider and sustainer?

There’s not way to get confident without first trusting!

Psalm 37:5

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:

A content person is more thankful for the things we do have instead of complaining about all the things we don’t.

Philippians 1:6

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

He is enough, he hasn’t failed me, he will prevail, he is able, he is working.

I am aware at what is around me, but I’m confident in Him who is in me.

Im confident so I can be content and at peace even when life doesn’t go the way I planned or thought.

You may have no feeling of peace. your heart in turmoil. Just know, God can be trusted.

Also know, anxiety isn’t your enemy.

You’re not a horrible person because it creeps in.

Instead of running from it and denying the anxiousness you feel, what if you listened to it.

It will most likely show you an area that you need more confidence in God.

INTERNALLY SETTLED AND ETERNALLY FOCUSED

Most of us probably wouldn’t say we’re internally settled.

At rest.

Most of the time we are searching for something, feeling like more is needed.

Always more and more and more.

This is the killer of comparison.

What I have is great until I see what you have.

Remember show and tell from school?

You didn’t choose what was just your favorite toy, but what would have been cooler than the other kids!

I remember having some cool toys as a kid, but then my friend got a Teddy Ruxpin.

I wanted it. And because he had it, my toys now werent at good!

Isn’t that how life is sometimes??

Proverbs 14:30

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

Comparison kills contentment.

It leaves me unsatisfied, always needing more and feeling like less.

To be internally settled, we have to be eternally focused.

Comparing my life against what god says, what god has.

1 Timothy 6:6-10

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

It begs the ultimate question:

What are we actually living for?

Others?

Perception? Stuff?

True contentment is satisfied with less in a world of more.

ACCEPTING REALITY WHILE PURSING ALL GOD HAS FOR ME

Contentment is not the same as complacency.

Complacency is just settling.

Not trying. Why try.

Good enough.

No!! This isn’t the godly way to live.

Contentment is grateful and at peace with where I am, while simultaneously pursuing all of the things God still has for me.

Contentment isn’t afraid so change, to move and to grow.

Philippians 4:11-13

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 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. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 3:12-16

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

I’m not just settled in, I’m pressing ahead.

Not because I’m unsatisfied but because I’m unfinished!

But it’s not about just getting more for me, but becoming more of who he’s called to be.

It’s learning to not live for myself, but bigger than myself.

That’s what Paul was doing. He wasn’t satisfied building his own kingdom, He got busy building God’s!!

You’ll never find contentment if you aren’t living for something bigger than yourself.

You are wired to make a difference.

To become more and more like the one who created you.

Have you gotten complacent?

when it’s just about you, there’s never enough, when it becomes about God and others there is always more.

A word of Wisdom

CONTENTMENT IS THE KEY TO FULFILLMENT.

This is the place God wants us and Jesus promised us.

A fulfilled life!

Not because everything is perfect but because I’m settled, have joy and peace no matter what.

I also have greater things I’m pursuing.

RESPONSE.

Pray.