Divine Contentment and Divine Discontentment (Devotion on 3/12/16)

(I) Divine contentment

Phil 1:20-24. … as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death. ²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴ But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Phil 4:11.  ^… for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹² 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. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

2 Cor 12:9-13.  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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1.       What is divine contentment?

It is satisfaction in God. A resting in all that Christ is, and finding Him to be enough.

This satisfaction is not because God can give us what we want or need. (Ps 131:2. But I have calmed and quietened my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.)

Contenment is allied to the idea of ‘faith’.  Faith is not intellectual assent (Js 2:19). True faith that saves always acts (Js 2:14). Faith is trusting, believing in the promises of God to us: His goodness, sovereign power and favour for every situation.

(Rom 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Jer 32:40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.)

We believe that God is on our side. We believe that in Christ we have all we need. When we operate in this faith: “God is good, God is great, sin is not better”, we please God (Heb 11:6)

Satisfaction in God makes sense because the greatest joy and treasure is in God. (c.f. the pearl of great price,  Mt 13:45-46; Ps 16:11. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures for evermore”.)

2.       What does divine contentment look like?

a) Divine contentment helps us to deal with shame and praise from people (Phil 4:11)

There are good and bad reasons why we should feel ashamed. Some shame is justified. Some shame is neutral, because of social conventions. Some shame comes when we do the right thing (Heb 12:2). Similarly, some praise is justified, and some is not. We are to seek glory from people, but from God. (Jn 5:44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek that glory that comes from the only God?”) Contentment in Christ helps us look beyond the actions and opinions of other people. We know that only God’s opinion counts.

b) Divine contentment saves us from pride or anxiety within ourselves (Phil 4:11)

When we have an abundance we are tempted to trust in our position or possessions, and to abandon dependence on God. Pride is rooted in self-sufficiency. It has no reference to God. (cf. The rich fool In Lk 12:13-21).  On the other hand, when we have little we worry that we will not have enough to ‘survive’. The most common command in the Bible is, “Do not fear/be afraid” (about 86 times). We may worry over many things, but we need to know that worry is a sin. Worry dishonours God. In being content in Him, we are freed from our fears. “Christ is enough”

c) Divine contentment makes us unafraid of suffering and death (2 Co 12:10, Ph 1:20-21)

Suffering should help us depend not on external comforts, but to experience more of the power of Christ in our lives. The loss of other pleasures makes us maximize our pleasure in Christ. Death is not to be feared, because while living means Christ, dying means ‘gain’ (“be with Christ” = more of Christ). Christ is more valuable than all than life offers – family, work, church, leisure.

d) Divine contentment gives us power to deal with every situation in life (Phil 4:11)

It gives us the calm centre that gives us complete stability for all life’s challenges. We trust that “God is good all the time”. It is the ballast in a ship. It is the steel backbone of a skyscraper. It is ‘secret’ power of happiness for the disciple of Christ.

e) Divine contentment glorifies God.

Christ is honoured in Paul’s body in life or death. When Paul gives up his life and counts it gain, because he is so completely satisfied in Christ, Christ is glorified. The prosperity gospel honours God because of His gifts, not His person. We look for the blessings, which everyone, believer or non-believer looks for. Nobody glorifies God when we become rich and healthy. People sit up and take notice when we suffer but keep trusting and praising God.

3.       Divine contentment and Christian living

a) Divine contentment exposes false contentments in our lives

In Phil 4:11 Paul is content not only with when he is brought low, hungry and needy, but also he is content when he abounds and faces plenty and abundance. Most of us have no problem in the latter circumstances! That implies that contentment because of happy circumstances is false contentment. It depends on what world offers. Instead of hungering for more of God, our appetites can be so satisfied with the pleasures and diversions and luxuries of this world that there is no more desire for the glories of heaven. Our lives can become so secure and comfortable that we feel no need to push ahead in our spiritual grown of development. There will be no real motivation to press on if we do not desire the fullness of God. True contentment can say in the worst of times, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away… “ (Job 1:21)

d) Divine contentment keeps us from envy

 When we are contented in Christ, we do not have to compare ourselves with others and feel deprived. We will be able to tell the difference between the temporary things the world offers with the riches of God that we have in Christ. We gain spiritual clarity of vision so that we can look beyond glitz and glamour, comfort and luxury, to true treasure.

(II) Divine discontentment

Phil 3:7-16But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Introduction: sinful discontentment

There are things we should be content about in our life. The Bible tells us (Heb 13:5, 1 Tim 6:3-10, 2 Cor 12:10) to be content with what we have - all God’s gifts to us - our life experiences, our state of health, our family circumstances, our relationships and our financial resources. We should ask, how is this not sinful? Shouldn’t we be contented in God alone? The answer is that we look beyond all our blessings in life to the good God who has given them. That is one of the reasons why we thank God for food before eating! Augustine of Hippo said, “He loves Thee too little, who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.”

This means that failure to be content with these things is a sin, because it shows that we do not trust God’s care and sufficiency. This means that when we desire are always set on getting more of what we already have, we sin. It is a sin, for example, to want to be rich (1 Ti 6:9 “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.” Eccl 5:10, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.”)

1.       What is divine discontentment?

Divine discontentment is when we want more of God, not more from God. It is primarily a hunger and thirst for His joy and his presence. It is what Moses showed in Ex 33:18 – “Please show me Your glory”.  It is the cry of the Psalmist: “As a deer pants for flowing streams,   so pants my soul for you, O God.2 My soul thirsts for God,    for the living God. Ps 42:1-2; O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,  as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,  beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life,  my lips will praise you.4 So I will bless you as long as I live;  in your name I will lift up my hands.5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,  and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,” Ps 63:1. There is a constant dissatisfaction with our spiritual condition and a desire to be closer to God, an inner motivation to be increasing in holiness (Heb 12:14).

Divine discontentment also carries a desire to see God’s Name be hallowed and a jealousy that His will be done (Ps 69:9, Jn 2:17)  It makes us to grieve over our broken world and the injustice and suffering we so, not mainly because life is hard and the world is bad, although it is, but because God’ character is slandered by action and speech and because God’s laws are broken. It makes us grieve also that unrepentant sinners will not receive God’s grace, not mainly because we pity them, but because sinners remain rebellious against a holy God.

Divine discontentment is the reverse side of the coin of divine contentment – only the contented in God can be discontented in a godly way.

2.       What does divine discontentment look like?

a) Divine discontentment is God-given (Phil 3:12)

The absence of a holy discontentment can be a sign that we have never really known God and have His Spirit work in our lives. If you don’t have it, maybe you are not saved. The Bible never suggests that, having made a ‘decision’ for Christ at some evangelistic meeting or after someone sharing the four spiritual laws with us, that we should feel vaccinated against damnation. It is a mistake to ‘trust’ that a one-time decision to ‘accept Jesus as Saviour’ would exempt us from the need to keep going hard after God. Some have taken the idea of “once saved, always saved” to the extent that they have no desire to become serious with the life of discipleship, because they feel that their salvation is secure. In contrast, the mark of one who is truly saved is to have a desire to pursue Christ, because the Holy Spirit in a Christian always wants us to please the Lord in every way and will move us to do so in increasing measure. So when we long for more of God, we can be assured that we are saved.

b) Divine discontentment doesn’t look back (Phil 3:13)

 Phil 3:13 tells us that a certain kind of remembering will hinder our efforts to pursue the life of discipleship. We need to put out of our minds anything in our past or anything from our backgrounds that will hinder us in our pursuit of God. For Paul, it was his race, culture, family, religious zeal and ceremonial righteousness that had been a source of pride and security for him in the past. In today’s language we could talk about our family connections, our education, our talents, our achievements and our looks. We could include our secular and spiritual achievements, our awards and prizes, our compliments from others, our promotions and responsibilities as well as our faithful service as a secular worker or church volunteer. This kind of remembering makes us secure and contented in the wrong thing. Anything that makes us spiritually complacent – even spiritual success – must be rejected. We can also be tempted to remember our many sins, troubles, weaknesses and failures. This kind of remembering makes us grow discouraged that we will ever get to where God wants us to be. In both cases we stop trusting God: we trust ourselves and take credit for God’s work in our lives, or we lose faith in God’s sovereign promises on our behalf.

Yet very often in the Bible God commands us to remember the past. For example, the Psalmist (Ps 77:11) tells himself to remember God’s deeds. The Lord Jesus instituted His Supper for the purpose of helping us remember his death (1 Corinthians 11:24–25), the author of Hebrews wrote his entire eleventh chapter to help us remember and learn from the past. How then, do we know what to forget, and what to remember? My answer is this - remember everything *God* has done for you and in you and through you. Remember everything through the filter of God’s grace working in your past. And put behind you everything *you* have done for yourself through your own resources and power.  When we look back in this way, we will not be tempted to pride. We will remember God’s faithfulness and goodness as greater than our failures and sins. Then we can find new strength so that we can press forward with greater energy and assurance.

c) Divine discontentment looks heavenward (Phil 3:14)

Heaven is where we will have more of God. Perhaps this point carries the most weight - because it is never sufficient for us to be motivated by guilt or duty. It is always best for us to do something for and with joy and pleasure. God has promised us a prize at the end of the race. The exact nature of the promised reward is implied from Philippians 3 - Paul's goal at the end of the race of life was to know Christ. He wanted to experience and to identify with Christ as much as possible. Life for him was about “Christ”, death was “gain” because he would know Christ more fully (Phil 1:21). He was completely assured that the life and pleasure and joy he had in Christ was the best thing in all the world. He knew that in Christ, God’s rewards and honours were far greater and more permanent than worldly wealth and riches and status. Near the end of his life he was able to say in 2 Ti 4:6-8 “… the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” He understood that heaven is not just where we will praise God - it is also where God will praise those of us who have been faithful to Him till the very end. “the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. “(1 Pe 1:7)

This is why God sometimes ordains suffering in our lives, either illness or emotional pain or loss or just the physical sufferings of old age. This frees us bit by bit from the attractions of the world and prepares us for heaven. We call this ‘grace’!

c) Divine discontentment can be progressively learned (Phil 3:15-16)

We don’t become perfect all of a sudden. This should encourage us in our journey when we fail and sin. The development of desires for God starts at new birth but continues all our lives. We have God’s promise that He will complete the good work He began in us. (Phil 1:6). And as we grow each step of the way, we are called to put into practice and hold on to whatever God has progressively shown us.

4.       Divine discontentment and Christian living

a) Divine discontentment keeps us close to God and far from sin.

 It is hard to coast. The current of the world sweeps us downstream, away from Him. If we don’t keep fighting and running and ploughing (2 Ti 2:3-7), we will fall back. God uses our desire for more of Him to keep us in faith and away from sin.

One Biblical way to look at sin is not as a list of dos and don'ts. Rather, “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Ro 14:23)  - everything we do, think and say that comes outside of a trust in God as good and great is sinful. God must suffice. We commit adultery and watch porn and steal and lie and are lazy because we have failed to be satisfied in God. Instead, feeling satisfied in God keeps us fighting the fight of faith – trusting. We are not moved by prohibitions against pleasure. Rather, we are moved by the thought of losing the greatest pleasures that we are meant to find in God.