The Right Kind of Discontentment

1 Thessalonians 4:1

"As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more."

1 Thessalonians 4:9-10

"Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,"

There is a form of discontentment that is acceptable in the eyes of God. Those who have studied the scriptures know and understand that we are called by God to be content with all that he has given us. It is the devil's work to drag us along to "better things." Although there are times when it is difficult to tell the difference between God calling us to something new (a new season) and our flesh saying that we are ready for something different and no longer want to do _________, in most cases, being content with what God has given us is the best approach. Whether it is a ministry that God has given us, a financial situation that God has given us, or any other situation, we should be content, and stay there until God has completed His work in us. We are very ready to move on to something new. We have the attention span of children, but God wants to mature us, and that takes time (for instance, forty years in the desert). 

That being said, there is a form of discontentment that is acceptable and even encouraged by Scripture. This discontent comes when we look upon our face in the mirror, as James says. When we look to God's word and see how desperately short we fall in our personal holiness and holy disciplines. I do not claim in any way that our salvation is born of the works that we do, do not misunderstand. Some might say that since we are saved by grace, that we have no need to pursue righteousness and holy lives. They scoff at any words spoken on obedience to God's word, as salvation based on works. However, it is great folly to walk in darkness and assume that it will lead to the light of eternity. 1 John is clear on this point, and James echos the sentiments that a genuine disciple of Christ has a changed heart that leads to a changed attitude, action, and words. At what point can we say that we have obtained complete holiness and no longer need to strive for it "more and more"? This question is addressed in two manners: for one thing, we are made perfectly holy the moment in which we accept Christ as the propitiation for our sin. God no longer sees us as unholy and sinful, but rather in the robes of Christ and His righteousness. However, most would agree that we continue to sin, still on earth. So there is yet another holiness for which we must strive. This holiness is one in which Christ calls us to, when he says that we must pick up our cross daily and follow Him. Putting to death our flesh and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work of sanctification in our hearts. Sanctification is the act of setting something apart as holy. Why is it that we have this holiness from Christ, and yet we still spend our days on earth pursuing the same? Because the sign of genuine faith in someone is that they walk in the light. To truly accept Christ is to take Him as Lord and Master. This means obedience. Not obedience for the sake of obedience (as we obey earthly masters even though their rules sometimes are not in our best interest), but obedience out of trust. We trust that God's laws are in place to show us how to live life to the fullest. That His way is the only way to find true life. Any other way will lead us to death and destruction. And so, this is where we find the discontentment. When we look at our face in the mirror of God's word and see how desperately we fall short of its calling for our lives, we feel this urgency to make changes. We must put to death this sin, and when it is subdued, there is yet another that must be dealt with, and on and on, until one glorious day, we will be face to face with our Creator, and He will take all our imperfection away, through the cross of Christ, and place on us robes of pure white righteousness and holiness. 

I wonder if we find ourselves discontent, today. If we ever find ourselves believing that we have accomplished "enough" holiness, or that we have made "enough" progress, we are in grave danger, for there is no hope of perfection this side of eternity--if we think that we have accomplished it, there is a deep root of pride and arrogance in our hearts that will one day separate us from God, for those that are not ill have no need of a physician. If we claim that we have no sin, we are liars and the truth is not in us. Let us not get comfortable in the lies of the enemy that we have everything sorted and we can sit back until Jesus returns (remember the parable of the servants). Let us pray that the Holy Spirit would do His work in our hearts and speak into our hearts the conviction that we felt all those years ago, when He first revealed our depravity. Then, we will have the kind of discontentment that is acceptable to God--the kind that spurs us on toward holiness.  

Taking the Name

Exodus 20:7

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."

Colossians 3:17a

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus..."

Dear Christian, have you ever thought of the third of the ten commandments? Do not take the name of the Lord in vain. In my younger years, I was taught that the meaning of this was to not use God's name as a curse word, but is it not much more than that? Yes, we should regard the Lord's name as sacred. We should not so flippantly use it, as we so do in this generation. I think that the deeper meaning of this commandment is found in something that my mother used to say to me, "When you behave badly, it reflects on me." Why does it? Because I have the family name. People see my behavior and say, "Oh that is one of those Bergen boys!" In the same way, brother and sister, we have a family name. The term Christian was first heard in Antioch (Acts 11:26b), and even though the believers did not take the name on themselves (it was given to them), they took on the name of Christ. In Colossians, Paul writes that we should do everything in the name of Jesus. He is merely echoing what Jesus explained to do, "Give a glass of water in my name..." (Matthew 10:42, Mark 9:41). As followers of Christ, everything that we do and say should be on behalf of Jesus. We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that we are ambassadors for Christ, meaning we represent Him on earth. In this, we take on the family name. God's commandment in Exodus was applied to the people of Israel, because they were to be a light to the gentiles and example to everyone of what it meant to follow the One, true, living God. In their travels, the name of the Lord became magnified as they were victorious in battles and nations began to fear them, merely because of the name that they carried with them. This commandment is as true today as it was for them. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain. Do not take on the title of Christian without first understanding what it means to be a follower of Christ. Do not take the name of the Lord carelessly. The commandment comes with a warning, "the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." It is said that many on the day of Judgement will cry out, "Lord, Lord!" And Jesus will reply, "I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness" (Matthew 7:23, Luke 13:27). Those that take on the name of Christ but do not plan on doing what His word says are taking His name in vain. We say that we have a love for God, but remember that love for God is obedience to His commandments (John 14:15). In everything we do, we must understand that we are representing the Lord Jesus, and we should not take that lightly. Spend every day asking the Holy Spirit to change your heart, and allow this truth to change your thoughts, attitudes, actions, and words. But also be comforted to know that we take the name of the Lord through adoption, and we are His children, and He loves us. 

Examine Yourselves

2 Corinthains 13:5
"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"

Does this verse bring perplexity? Should we not be confident in our salvation? We are told to have faith and do away with doubt, in other passages of Scripture, and the work of bringing doubt of our security in Christ is usually the enemy's work. But this passage tells us to examine ourselves and test ourselves, to see what? Whether we are in the faith. I find that there is a fragile balance that each believer must keep. It is the balance of humility and confidence. It is the same reason we are told that the fear of God is the beginning of understanding, but also that love casts out that fear. God can be all powerful Judge. The object of our fear and awe, but he can also be at the exact same time merciful, loving Father. Jesus told us to approach Him as a father, and when Jesus died on the cross, the veil that kept us from approaching boldly was torn in half. We need to understand that being bold and being humble can happen at the same time. Our assumption is that if someone is bold, they are not humble. It brings to mind the story of Esther. She was told to enter in before the king. She did so boldy, but also humbly. She did not do it because she thought herself so important as to be above the rules, but rather because she loved her people. She did not enter with an attitude of "I deserve to be here" but rather with the attitude of "If only by the grace of the king, I will approach." Therefore, Christian, we must enter into God's presence boldly, covered in blood of Christ and right in God's eyes, but also humbly, understanding that it is only by the grace of God that we stand.

How are we to test our faith, one may ask. God brings testing upon us, as James writes, through trials. When a tempest rises, the way in which we react can both qualify us and also disqualify us as genuinely Christ's. I believe that we test our own faith not on our own, but by the reading and devotion to God's Word. We are told in Hebrews that the Word of God is like a physician's knife that cuts us deep. I believe that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. As we read God's word, we find sin in our lives, because through the Word of God is the knowledge of sin, and the Holy Spirit begins his delicate work on our hearts. We are told that the Holy Spirit is the seal on us that marks us as His. So, when the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us of sin, we can be sure that we are His. When, as we read His Word, God reveals to us the sin and bleak state of our hearts, we can be certain that He disciplines those that are His children. We must look upon our situation both with confidence and humility. The enemy would love to have us paralyzed in fear that we are not His. We can be certain that we are, as long as we are in pursuit of those things to which He has called us to in His Word.

 Some warnings: the Bible says that the Word can fall upon weedy ground. These weeds grow with the faith and eventually choke it out. When we are told to examine our faith, we need to seriously think about the sin that we allow to rule in our lives. Although many struggle with sin, we must be sure that we are taking drastic measures to cut the weeds out. A sign of one who is not in the faith is one who allows sin to rule in their life, and this does not always appear as the one living in open sin, but sometimes in the one who plays the victim and has yet to take the measure that Christ has told to cut sin out of his life. Test yourselves.