Contentment # 2

Contentment # 2

They do little good, have little fellowship with God, and are very unlike the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you wish to be like them?

Consider why the Holy Spirit is given to you. It is to fortify you against fear, strengthen you in every trouble, and conform you to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Spirit is given to you to lead you to Christ, to teach you to make use of Christ, and to instruct you how to bring honor and glory to Christ.

The Spirit is given to you to unfold and apply the promises, help your infirmities in prayer, and cry, Abba Father, in your heart.

The Spirit is to do all within you - as the Lord Jesus has done all without you. Then, sow to the Spirit, live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit - and discontent will flee away; joy, peace, and gratitude, will fill your soul; and your life will be as happy, as it is often uncomfortable now.

Or, consider God's decree, which fixed your lot, and did  so for the wisest and best reasons. His decree is so fixed, that all your struggling, fretting, and complaining, will not alter it.

Consider Christ's example, who chose the poor man's place; and who was poorer than you are, more tried than you are, and who suffered far more than you can. Yet He never complained. No one ever heard a word tinged with discontent proceed from His lips; and He is the copy you are to imitate, the example you are to follow.

Consider the gracious promises. Promises of God's presence, of God's care, and of God's assistance.

Promises made to banish fears, excite your gratitude, and inspire you with holy confidence.

Promises which secure to you, all that is necessary for the present life - and of that which is to come.

Consider the condition of the primitive saints. Where you have one trial - they had fifty. Where they had one outward comfort - you have a hundred. They were many of them homeless, friendless, and oppressed. To them, earth was a wilderness, life only a series of trials; and death, or the coming of Jesus, alone afforded them hope of deliverance. Look at them hidden in dens and caves of the earth, clothed in goat skins, or sheep skins, wandering about from place to place - destitute, afflicted, tormented!

Consider of your deserts. What have you merited? What have you deserved? Can you claim one comfort, one privilege, one exemption from suffering on the ground of desert? Or, if you had only your desert - would you have a rag to cover you, a morsel to feed you, a drop to refresh you, a shed to shelter you, a law to protect you, a friend to speak to you, or one ray of hope to cheer you?

Would you have anything but the frown of God, the wrath of God, the curse of God, and these forever! Oh, what a dreadful state you would be in, if you had only your deserts!

Consider your future prospects:  DELIVERANCE, from every foe and fear, from every pain and privation, from every trouble and trial. POSSESSION, eternal possession of health, wealth, of life and liberty, of God and heaven, of Christ and inconceivable glory!  Oh, how bright, how beautiful, how blessed, the prospects of a believer in Jesus are!

How then can you be discontented if you believe that God fixed your lot by His immutable decree; if you keep your eye fixed on Jesus as your example; if you receive and rest on the great and gracious promises; if you think of your own deserts; if you meditate on God's glorious designs in all that happens to you? How can you be discontented?

Gracious God, we beseech You to give us the grace of contentment. O, grant that we may not only be content but grateful!

Holy Spirit, give us such a view of the hell we have escaped, such a view of the heaven promised us, and such a view of the price Jesus paid for our ransom - that we may sink into the profound depths of humility, and rise to the highest heights of grateful love!!

O Saviour, we bless You, we praise You, and we magnify your glorious name, for all you have procured for us, wrought in us, and set before us! And we rejoice that throughout eternity, we shall be still praising You!

~James Smith~

(The End)