XV_Contentment

XV
Contentment

‘Keep your lives free from the love of money –

be content with what you have’ Hebrews 13:5

I can imagine that the first reaction of some of you may be ‘I haven’t got any money’! But look again at what this verse says about being free from the love of money – that is a very different position. You would have to be quite old to remember a pop song called ‘Money is the root of all evil’ – what it said was wrong then and it is still wrong. However, this confuses lots of people. But, there is a problem that cannot be disguised. In the UK recent figures for the outstanding debt on all types of credit cards is £1.3 trillion. It is so large as to almost unbelievable.

There is no pulling of punches or mincing of words in the passage we are looking at. It would take a very long time to unmask and discuss the attitudes and mindsets of the generation in which we live. How many are truly content with what they have? It is blindingly obvious that many are discontented and imagine that if only they had that plasma screen TV or a car which makes them both an object of desire or want a better set of widgets than the Jones family next door – the list goes on. Do these things (that is what they are) bring contentment?

For some such desires can become high priority and the consequences for their lives and those near and dear to them are disastrous. J John puts it neatly as he usually does; we live in one of two tents – content or discontent. Discontent is very close to coveting and that is a commandment we break at our peril.

The balance is, I believe, to be content and cultivate being content as a real positive in our lives. Close to the end of his life Paul reminded Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain. This will be a corrective and a balance to the tendency we all encounter to place too much value on the things we have and any money that God nay have entrusted to us. It is a sobering thought that we arrived in this world with nothing and we leave it taking nothing with us.

Is the standard set out here too high? We are human and we do have the ability to get it wrong. What I want to argue is that an outlook on money, which springs from a desire to celebrate what we have received, can replace our natural mindset. The chorus ‘Count your many blessings, name them one by one; and it will surprise you what the Lord has done’ may be old, but has a truth we do well to ponder repeatedly.
Perhaps this is a way forward. Ask God to remind you, if you have forgotten, what he has done for you. The best of all is that is that God is with you – isn’t that a cause for being content?

XV_Patience

XV
Patience
“...be patient with each other, making allowance for each

other's faults because of your love” Ephesians 4:2

Patience seems to be a word on my mind a lot.
No matter if it's work or in my personal life God always seems to be saying, “Be patient!”. Oh how I've come to not like those words at times. “I want it now!” I yell, but God again replies, “Be patient”. I know that patience is one of the seven mentioned in the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But why then is it so difficult?

Have I just missed that one out and got six (some would argue I have less)? Did I miss that talk at church that taught me how to be patient? I wish there was an easy fix method but unfortunately it involves us to do something....love. Not only love for God but love for those around us, at work, at church and at home.

How often has God wanted you to be patient? What did you do? Did you wait....or did you rush in and get stung and then wonder what happened? It may sound like a Sunday school answer but waiting on God in prayer can help us a lot. Actually waiting for the answer though, not just saying the prayer! In Bill Hybels' book 'Too busy not to pray' he has an amazing little poem to help us remember what to do in response to prayer:

If the request is wrong, God says “No”.
If the timing is wrong, God says “Slow”.
If you are wrong, God says “Grow”.
But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says “Go”.

If the timing is wrong, God says “Slow”. He says, “Not yet, it's not part of my plan for it to happen now, trust me”.

The next time you're struggling with a friend, family member or colleague remember these words from Ephesians 4:2, “...Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love”.

Take a time out, pray, pray for them and most of all love them.

In the words of the theologically accurate boy band Take That, 'Have a little patience'