Today one of my dear friends has had surgery to remove her colon. This is the latest step in her battle with ulcerative colitis which has not been kind to her. However, she is one of the most peaceful and content people I know. Last year we were discussing contentment and she said that she had realised that she "had to give her right to be healthy to God."
I've been thinking about this on and off ever since. What I've been thinking is that this giving up of our 'rights' or 'entitlements' is the true key to contentment.
And the fact is we only actually have two 'rights', there are only two things we are 'entitled' to.
One is the right to death because "... all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) and in Romans 6:23 we read "For the wages of sin is death ... " We have the right and the certainty that we will die one day.
But the verse continues, "...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." This leads to our other right. We have the right to choose, to choose life or death. To choose to make our own way through life and, at the end, to die for eternity. Or, we can accept the gift Christ offers and live for eternity.
There is nothing else that is truly ours. Every other thing we think is a right really isn't and when we claim them and then don't get them it legitimizes us in thinking that we are victims and hard done by. The fact is that every other thing we have in our lives is a gift from God. Do you have health? Thank God for the gift. Are you loved? Thank God for that gift, because "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17
The only way to true happiness and contentment is to give all those things we consider to be our 'rights' back to God and then accept with joy the gifts He in His wisdom chooses to bestow on us.
Then I branched out in my thinking. To hope. We also only have one safe hope and that is the hope of the second coming and the faithfulness of God to make us ready for that event. Every other hope has the potential to disappoint but we can safely depend on the fact that the second coming of Christ is going to happen at some point in the not too distant future. And that God is "... is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
And this of course leads directly to trust. And again there is only one thing we can safely trust, and that is that God will keep His word. If God has promised something then as long as we have fulfilled the conditions of the promise we have the assurance that that thing is ours!! This applies equally for the blessings and the curses He has promised. We can walk according to His law and all the blessings in the Bible are ours. Equally if we choose to break His law and walk our own way then all the curses in the Bible are also ours.
Me, I choose LIFE! I choose it with JOY. And, I choose to be content while I wait for God to reveal His will for my life!!
Here are some interesting thoughts on contentment, I've copied them from someone's blog, you can go there to read the entirety of the post.
There was one man at least who said, and said it very honestly, "I have learned in whatever state I am in, therein to be content." His words have special value, too, when we remember in what circumstances they were written. They were dated in a prison, when the writer was wearing a chain in prison. It is easy enough to say such things in the summer days of prosperity; but to say them amid trials and adversities, requires a real experience of victorious living.
But what did Paul mean when he said, "I am content"? He certainly did not mean that he was satisfied. Contentment is not an indolent giving up to circumstances. It does not come through the dying out of desire and aspiration in the heart. There is a condition of mind which some people suppose to be devout submission to God's will, which is anything but Christlike. We are to make the most of our life. We are not to yield irresolutely and weakly to everything which opposes us. Ofttimes we are to resist and conquer what seem to be impossibilities. We are never to be satisfied with our attainments, or our achievements, however fine they may be. Satisfaction is undivine; it is a mark of death, not of life. Paul never was satisfied. He lived to the very last day of his life—looking forward and not back—forgetting things which behind—and stretching forward to things yet before, eager to do more and achieve more. When he said he had learned to be content, he did not mean that he had ceased to aspire and strive.
The original word, scholars tells us, contains a fine sense which does not come out in the English translation. It means self-sufficing. Paul, as a Christian man, had in himself all that he needed to give him tranquility and peace, and therefore he was not dependent upon any external circumstances. Wherever he went, there was in him a competence, a fountain of supply, a self-sufficing. This is the true secret of Christian contentment, wherever it is found. We cannot make our own circumstances; we cannot keep away the sickness, the pain, the sorrow, the misfortune from our life; yet as Christians we are meant to live in any and all experiences in unbroken peace, in sweet restfulness of soul.
