TODAY! 21 day Devotion by: H.R. Lister
Day 18: “Are you Satisfied?”
Have you ever wondered if what you do matters? Makes a difference? Is working?
-You ever thought you where doing this parenting thing right and then your kid says or does something that makes you question everything?
-Have you ever been trying your absolute best in your marriage and relationships and it just seems to be going nowhere?
-In your finances... Taking all the tips, tried that tithing thing once or twice, tried out Dave Ramsey one pay period...
-In your relationship with God???? (you’ve tried praying, Worshipping, reading your Bible, and giving but nothing seems to be breaking through....)
-On your job....
- Doing the right things in life is a lot like going to the Gym, you can’t do it once or every once in a while and expect great results... (consistent precision, Slow and steady, Strategic purposeful living is what yields fruit!)
* I was talking to a Pastor Friend the other day and we where both giving glory to God for what is being done in and through our churches, and then he said: “but I would really like to see MORE FRUIT”... Then he began to recite where the church was when he came and where they where now and a smile came on his face because he realized that fruit was abounding...
-Why did he have a moment where he thought there wasn’t enough fruit?
- I believe it’s the positive traits of expectation, hope, faith, and vision for the future that is inside of each of us that Satan exploits to flip us into hopelessness and despair!
- Think about it! If you never hoped for better or cared if there was better, you’d never even try!
- The fact that you have a dissatisfaction inside of you about something, causes you to make a motion to change...
- Notice I said: Dissatisfaction and not Discontentment...
- It is possible and should be our aim to live content, yet not satisfied...
What’s the Difference?
Being satisfied is when you get/achieve what you want!
Being content is being happy even if you don't get/achieve what you want!
(example:) You can be riding a bike to work and desire to be driving a car, you are not satisfied with the bike, so you buy a car and you’re satisfied. But you can be content or happy, if you’re riding the Bike to work or driving a car...
Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Covetousness “having or showing a great desire to possess something, typically something belonging to someone else.”- I believe a healthy dissatisfaction is the ability to honestly assess where you are and be able to see where you need to be....
- That healthy desire to achieve the goal of being where you what to be is God given!
- IT’S CALLED HOPE!
- Faith is the action, the substance, the evidence that you have
HOPE!
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the [b]evidence of things not seen.”
Satan loves to pervert our Hope with discontentment, covetousness, jealousy and envy...
The desires to build a God honoring and Successful life and the feelings of discontentment can be so similar at times that it’s easy to find yourself in a place of despair instead of HOPE!
How do we combat and fireproof our lives from discontentment?
2 things to check....
1) Motive 2) Method
Motive: Why do we want what we’re after?
-This takes serious maturity, you have to look yourself in the eyes, look down into your heart and ask yourself: “Why am I after what I’m after?”
Method: How am I going after what I want? or, What am I willing to do to get what I want????
-Your methods will always reveal your motives.... Contentment will keep your Motives and Methods pure, preventing you from
crossing the line of covetousness...
Ephesians 4:14-16 “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
- It’s not about what you can take in life to satisfy your discontentment, it’s about what you can bring to the table that supplies growth to the Body of Christ and ultimately the mark you leave on this earth for the Kingdom of God!
- You’re raising those kids and grandkids for the Kingdom - You’re working that Job for the Kingdom
- You’re working on your marriage for the Kingdom
BECAUSE YOU MATTER, and YOU HAVE A SUPPLY that GROWS and BUILDS THE KINGDOM OF GOD!!!!