Driven & Contented!

One major feature of modern life seems to be people's constant ability to complain. If it's too hot we moan, if it's too cold we complain and so on. The bible encourages us to be 'be content'.  In fact in 1 Timothy 6.8 it states that if we have clothes on our back and food in our stomach we should be content with that. Many in the world do not enjoy these simple blessings and therefore those who do should be grateful for the blessings they enjoy. The same passage of scripture warns against the driving passion for wealth. The bible is often misquoted, probably no passage is more misquoted than this one. People often say 'money is the root of all evil' however the bible actually says 'the love of money is the root of all evil'. The driving desire for wealth is the problem, not money in itself.

I wonder what the driving passion of your life is? What would make you really content even if you are one of the driven Type A group of people. Well the man who wrote the bible verses that I have been referring to in this blog could give us some advice. He lived shortly after the times of Jesus Christ. He was a free born Roman citizen. He was a lawyer, an educated man and a man who was driven to eradicate anyone who got in his path or disagreed with his personal beliefs. Strangely enough he wrote this "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Philippians 4.11). What made him change from being overbearing and obnoxious to be content and kind. He was still driven in many ways but his passions where different now. He lived for higher purposes and values, he was constantly thinking about others and not himself. But back to the question - what made the change? I think he gives us a clue when he describes the Lord Jesus in Galatians 2.20 as "the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me". One day this man (Saul of Tarsus, later know as Paul the Apostle) had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Jesus appeared to him from heaven and it changed his life. It took this dramatic revelation of God to convince him that Jesus was alive from the dead having died for our sins at Golgotha outside Jerusalem. He repented of his unbelief, blasphemy and sin (he changed his mind and direction), confessed his guilt before God and received the gift of God which is eternal though Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6.23).

My question for you is this. If you are a Christian - are you content and do you rejoice in all the blessing that God has brought into your life? If you are an unbeliever - how can you be content when you focus on the present, and soon to pass, things of this life? I am praying that God will open your eyes to see the truth about your need of salvation and to understand that the Lord Jesus died that your sins might be forgiven.