CONTENT
BREAD
23 The fear of the LORD
leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble. Proverbs 19:23 (NIV)
25 Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that
overtakes the wicked, 26 for the LORD will be your confidence and will
keep your foot from being snared. Proverbs 3:25-26 (NIV)
12 “Let the beloved of the LORD
rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.” Deuteronomy 33:12 (NIV)
7 Again I saw something meaningless under the sun: 8 There was a man all alone; he had
neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not
content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I
depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is meaningless-- a miserable business!
Ecclesiastes
4:7-8 (NIV)
18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man
to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun
during the few days of life God has given him--for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and
possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in
his work--this is a gift of God.
20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 (NIV)
20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 (NIV)
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be
on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions.” 16 And
he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain
rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to
store my crops.’ 18 Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my
barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to
myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy;
eat, drink and be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life
will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for
yourself?’ 21 This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for
himself but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:15-21 (NIV)
10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed
your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity
to show it. 11 I am not saying this
because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the
circumstances. 12 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. 13 I
can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians
4:10-13 (NIV)
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and
we can take nothing out of it. 8 But
if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into
temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men
into ruin and destruction. 10 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. 1 Timothy 6:6-10 (NIV)
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away
from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for
my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all
the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NIV)
10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NIV)
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content
with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I
forsake you.” 6 So we say with
confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to
me?” Hebrews
13:5-6 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Pleasure can breed disproportion in us. We chase small pleasures into
the trap of thinking that life is really about small pleasures — food, sex,
shopping, even friendship, marriage, and parenting. We end up trying to carve a
god out of our small pleasures instead of following each one up to the greatest
Pleasure. Every temporary good — and they are all temporary here on earth —
is an appetizer for the eternal. Now ‘we know in part . . . but when the
perfect comes, the partial will pass away’ (1 Corinthians 13:9-10). The partial
was always meant to prepare us for something perfect — someone who could
satisfy us completely, someone who could make us perfectly and invincibly
happy.” Marshall Segal
“My Master is more willing to supply your
needs than you are to confess them. Do not tolerate small thoughts of the Lord
Jesus. When you put the crown on His head, you will only crown Him with silver
when He deserves gold. My Master has
riches of happiness to bestow upon you now. He can make you to lie down
in green pastures and lead you beside still waters. There is no music like His
music that He, the Shepherd, plays for His sheep as they lie down at His feet.
There is no love like His; neither earth nor heaven can match it. To know
Christ and to be found in Him is real life and true joy. My Master does not
treat His servants meanly; He gives to them the way a king gives to a king. He
gives them two heavens—a heaven below in serving Him here, and a heaven above
in delighting in Him forever.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right.” Anonymous
“Contentment is not
having what I want, but wanting what I have.” Emalyn
Spencer
“He leadeth me, O blessed thought! O words with heav’nly
comfort fraught! Whate’er I do, where’er I be Still ’tis God’s hand that
leadeth me. Sometimes
’mid scenes of deepest gloom, Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom, By waters
still, o’er troubled sea, Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me. Lord, I would
place my hand in Thine, Nor ever murmur nor repine; Content, whatever lot I
see, Since ’tis my God that leadeth me. And
when my task on earth is done, When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won, E’en
death’s cold wave I will not flee, Since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He
leadeth me; His faithful foll’wer I would be, For by His hand He leadeth me.” Joseph H. Gilmore
“The itch for
perfection, the lust for something else is a virus draining our souls of
contentment.” Chuck
Swindoll
“The truly meek man is humble, gentle, patient, forgiving,
and contented; the very opposite of the man who is proud, harsh, angry,
revengeful, and ambitious. It is only the grace of God, as it works in us by
the Holy Spirit, that can make us thus meek.” Charles
H. Spurgeon
“His
love is unfailing, His Word unchangeable, His power ever the same; therefore
the heart that trusts Him is kept in ‘perfect peace’…I know He tries me only to
increase my faith, and that it is all in love.
Well, if He is glorified, I am content.” Hudson Taylor
5 “Keep your lives free from the
love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never
will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”
This prompted Spurgeon to ask: “Will not the distresses of life and the
pangs of death, will not the internal corruptions and the external snares, will
not the trials from above and the temptations from beneath all seem but light
afflictions when we can hide ourselves beneath the bulwark of ‘he has said’?”
Charles H. Spurgeon
HEART SAVOR
·
Those who are His can rest secure in
Him – contented and unafraid.
·
I am to be on my guard against every
kind of greed – my life is not to consist in the abundance of my possessions,
friends, activities or whatever. My
focus and my heart are to be set upon things above. If God
is my sufficiency and strength, I will not be found wanting or needy. His grace is sufficient to meet my every
need. It is He Who fills the desires of
a heart.
·
Contentment is learned.
