I heard it said that it is when you give your struggles over to God, then, and only then, he will bless you.
I’ve heard it said that when you learn to be content with who you are, when you learn to love yourself, then God will bless you with someone to love you.
I’ve read that the secret of contentment is when we distract ourselves from our worries, giving these things to God letting him deal with them, then God will bless us beyond our wildest imaginings.
This is not the case.
The above statements are dangerous. Yes, they may be said with good intentions, and people genuinely wanting to give you a piece of comfort. But all this does is lead to a works based faith and mentality. If I do this, then God will give me this. And even if we aren’t thinking it out loud, it becomes immersed into our sub-thinking. God doesn’t require that we attain a certain level of being before he blesses us. He gives all gifts - freely. Just like salvation, it is not something to be bought, earned or bribed. It is something given in God’s infinite mercy and grace.
Yes, we need to focus on God.
Yes, we need to give our concerns to him and not hold on to them.
Yes, we need to learn contentment with who we are as a child of God.
Yes, we need to learn contentment with all areas of our lives.
BUT
we cannot and must not affix the expectation of a blessing to these things.
/endrant
1 comment:
Although I'm not content I've worked it out yet, I think it has a lot to do with the 'content' of contentment (don't groan too loudly!). For the Christian, Christ puts the content back into contentment... It comes from the certainty of the hope we have in Him. In my sinfulness I still fail to trust in God's sovereign provision and goodness... and so I need to be reminded daily of all He has done for me. I long for my redemption and I long for the day of Christ's return. "Who hopes for what he already has?: So it is that we 'wait for it patiently' and pray for the lost.
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