Where to Find Real Satisfaction, Contentment, and Fulfillment

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out. If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  But you, man of God,  flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:6-11

Where to Find Real Satisfaction, Contentment, and Fulfillment

We are all pursuing something. We are all worshipping something. Whatever we are pursuing and worshipping is what we value the most. It is what we think about, chase, spend money on, spend time on; it is what consumes us. If what we value most is anything other than Jesus, we are set up for a foundation of a stronghold of idolatry. We wonder how we can end up in a place where we have strayed so far that we have displaced God in our lives and replaced him with an idol, but what we may not realize is that one stronghold may lead to another if we don’t realize it and realign ourselves with God. 

Disassociation from the Goodness of God

Like the Israelites we learned about Sunday, we can sometimes find ourselves in a season of waiting and silence. As a result, we can become impatient and confused about where God is, or what he is doing – or not doing. It is normal to wonder about God in the middle of a crisis situation, and for those who are not Christians, they may wonder if he exists at all, or why would he allow them or their loved ones to suffer if he is supposed to be good. Even Christians, who know the goodness of God, can disassociate themselves with his goodness because of the circumstances of our lives. We cannot allow ourselves to believe he is really a good God because of what is happening in our lives. Maybe it is betrayal, or abuse. Whatever it is we cannot reconcile in our hearts that God, who is good, would allow it to happen. 

Disassociation from the goodness of God leads us to Dissatisfaction.  

As we learned about satisfaction last week, we know that satisfaction can be a stronghold in our lives and dissatisfaction can lead to other issues – discontentment and disproportionate attention and affection, leading to the stronghold of idolatry. 

Dissatisfaction can lead us down a slippery slope to Discontentment. Discontentment is a much deeper issue than dissatisfaction. When we are content, we can find peace in Christ no matter what our circumstances are. We are not controlled by our feelings and desires. Contentment brings peace that comes from knowing that God is bigger than any problems and that he works them all out for our good. It isn’t a feeling of well-being contingent on keeping circumstances under control, but it is a joy in spite of circumstances, looking to God who never changes in the midst of shifting circumstances. Contentment comes from our heart. When we are discontent, we start looking for something to make us feel content. 

Discontentment leads to Disproportionate Attention and Affection. This causes us to place the attention and affection we should have for Christ and place it somewhere it doesn’t belong. Whatever we place our attention and affection in is what we worship. We find idols ("An image of a deity other than God; any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion; a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance.”) to place our attention and affection in – to worship – to give us the feeling we are looking for. But they cannot give us the feeling we are seeking. They disappoint every time. 

Every day we have to decide who or what will be our gods. Where will we place our attention and affection? What will we passionately pursue? Spend our days on? There is nothing on this earth that will give us the fulfillment and joy that pursing Jesus will. The truth is there is nothing that will fulfill our fleshly desires and fulfilling ourselves is not what we should be pursuing. We can end up putting ourselves on the throne of our lives, giving affection and attention to ourselves rather than God. There is no person or thing that is more worthy of our attention and affection than him, and the only worthy pursuit in this life is the pursuit of Jesus and walking The Jesus Way – living in obedience to him. When we do this we will know joy, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment like we have never known before. 

The Stronghold of Idolatry

Monday, May 20, 2024

When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!” Aaron replied to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said, “Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement: “There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.” Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to party. Exodus 32:1-6

The Stronghold of Idolatry

Moses was on the mountain with God and the Israelites were impatient. They had been through so much – hundreds of years of slavery and hundreds of years of silence from God. Then finally God answers their pleas and sends Moses to lead them out of the bondage of slavery. God miraculously opened the Red Sea so they could cross and escape Pharoah’s army, who drowned when the sea came crashing down on them as they tried to catch up with the fleeing Israelites. 

Now they were on a journey to the promised land – a land flowing with milk and honey – promised by God. God had laws for this new nation in the making and he called Moses to meet with him on a mountaintop to receive these instructions.  Moses was gone for forty days and because it was longer than they thought he should be, the Israelites were restless. 

They began to beg the man in charge in the moment – Aaron – to do something. So he did. He gathered all their jewelry and created a golden calf, and idol, the kind of false god they had been worshipping, who had done nothing to save them from their bondage. Aaron listened to the people and not God. He gathered gold jewelry that was to go for building a temple to God and used it to build a false god. And then not only did he construct the idol for them, he built them an altar where they could bow down in worship before the idol. 

Idol - "An image of a deity other than God; any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion; a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance.”

This idol would not be able to do what they were asking it to do – “…they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!””  They wanted this idol to take God’s place and lead them. This is a great example of the ridiculous lies that idols tell and we will believe in our desperation for something to happen. In the moment we are so willing to give up everything to get what we thing we need.

Idols put us right back in bondage that our God has freed us from. Idols pop up on the long journeys, bidding us to follow them instead because the journey is long, and the path is hard. When we are restless, they offer an easier path full of everything we could want and need, but it is really just thorns disguised as fulfillment. We look to idols to find a god we can control, a god we can manipulate into making things the way we think they should be. The Israelites forgot the Lord when Moses took longer than they thought he should be taking. They forgot in that moment how God delivered them from the bondage of slavery and saved them from Pharoah’s army.

When God is silent, we will go looking for an answer – any answer – anywhere.  Idols draw us, promising us instant gratification that they will never provide. Sometimes we go backwards when we are waiting on God, choosing to go back to an idol that gave us a moment of instant gratification instead of standing in our faith and trusting the God we know that keeps his promises. 

If we will hang on to our faith in the silence and in the delay, that thread we are hanging on to will become the lifeline that brings us back to God. Because in the deafening silence, God is with us; in the delay, God is there. It is during those times that we decide if we will stand on our faith and cling to him and his promises or if we will choose something else to fill the void we have when we shut God out.   

Strongholds - “Idolatry”

Strongholds
“Idolatry” 

Exodus 32:1-35 (CSB)

Key Truth: “Eliminating obstacles to faith clears a pathway to live The Jesus Way.”

- Idol - "An image of a deity other than God; any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion; a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance.”

Main Question: How do we so easily give up on the God we know and love and pursue other, inferior things? 

1.    We forget the Lord. (Exodus 32:1a)

2.    We create other alternatives. (Exodus 32:1b-6)

3.    We are held accountable by God. (Exodus 32:7-35)

After the Message: Read Exodus 20:1-21. What commands did God set up for His people? How can these commands help you to eliminate the stronghold of idolatry and lead you to live The Jesus Way?

A Prayer for Boldness in Sharing the Gospel of Jesus

Friday, Many 17th, 2024

A Prayer for Boldness in Sharing the Gospel of Jesus – Acts 4:24–30 Submitted by Kay Crumley

What are you ‘bold’ about in sharing with others? What is your passion? As a retired educator I find I can be quite bold in my opinions about public education because so much of my life was dedicated to that profession. The focal passage for this devotion is from Acts, some versions title the book The Acts of the Apostles. It was written by Luke who was often with them and observed firsthand what was happening with the new church, the body of Jesus followers, after His death and resurrection. It is a history of the early church. Those who heard and believed were sometimes referred to as a sect called The Way. The apostles were learning quickly how to be leaders and preachers. They faced opposition from the Jewish leaders because they feared the power this new church had both spiritually and politically as people were leaving the Temple to following Jesus’ teachings. The Jewish leaders feared the loss of control and influence in the Jewish community and the Roman rulers.  

Peter became an outspoken, courageous, and effective leader among the new believers. The Holy Spirit had come on the apostles and those who committed themselves to the Jesus way. Acts Chapter 3 begins with Peter healing a man who had been crippled since birth. His only means of income was to beg for money. He positioned himself at one of the gates to the Temple and all day long begged for someone to give him money. Peter and John stopped to talk to him and explained they had no money, but they did heal him in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. The man immediately got up and began walking. He would not leave their side because of the miracle of healing the Holy Spirit did through them. 

Peter then began to preach to a large crowd. Many in that crowd also believed. However, the Jewish leaders were angry and arrested Peter & John and held them overnight. They called them before the court the next morning but since the man who was healed with still with them the Jewish leaders couldn’t find reason to charge them with any offense. They decided to warn them with threats to stop teaching about Jesus. That was not something Peter and John were willing to do and let them know they had not choice but to tell what they had seen and heard about Jesus. The leaders had no option but to release them. 

Peter and John went to those who had been following them and listening to the message they preached and told them what had happened. They explained the reprimand they had been given. In Acts Chapter 4:24-30 we read their reaction. 

24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: 

“‘Why do the nations rage 
    and the peoples plot in vain? 
26 The kings of the earth rise up 
    and the rulers band together 
against the Lord 
    and against his anointed one. 

27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 

They prayed loudly to God. They declared God to be the Creator of all. They recited the words of David from Psalm 2. Then they recalled who Jesus is and what was done to Him by the Jewish leaders and Pilot. They also realized that nothing was done to Jesus that was not God ordained. They presented their requests in verses 29-30 that Jesus would enable the apostles to speak boldly and that the Holy Spirit would perform miracles through them to bring honor and glory to Jesus. 

They expressed their Adoration by remembering who God is, they Confessed their need for His power and protection, they Thanked Him for His provision, and finally they expressed their requests, Supplications, to Him. This is an acronym we can use to outline our prayers. I find it is my nature to jump to the last letter, just telling God what I need. However, when I begin by taking time to express my love for Him by honoring who He is and what He has done the world and, in my life, it is much easier to recognize by need for Him and thank Him for His never-ending loving kindness to me. That enables me to trust Him with my requests, ask believing. 

The end of this passage is the result of their prayer, verse 31.  

31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. 

 

Their prayer was answered, they were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke boldly.  

 

Paul’s Prayer for Gospel Advance

Thursday, May 16, 2023 

Paul’s Prayer for Gospel Advance – 2 Thessalonians 3:1–2 submitted by Kay Crumley

Do you ever question what you’re doing to advance God’s Kingdom? I ask myself that question. I don’t always like honest answers. I do pray for God to open opportunities to share the gospel, but do I consciously look for those encounters? Paul is giving the charge in todays passage to spread the gospel. That’s not the first time we have seen him giving that responsibility to those to whom he wrote. I share, on FB, a couple verses most days. Romans 10:14 was one of the verses I shared yesterday. How can they call on the One they have not believed in? How can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? How can they hear without someone preaching to them? Have you ever been surprised that someone you meet or maybe have known for some time doesn’t know about Jesus or have an accurate understanding of who He is and what He has done for us? Rather than asking, ‘how can you not know?’ We should be asking ‘have I ever shared the gospel with them?’ I know the answer to that question for myself, and it’s not what I want to be true. Romans 10:14 is, maybe, an ‘in your face’ challenge to us as believers. Are we doing what we’re called to do? Let’s review what that verse is really asking. We do not seek answers from anyone we don’t believe in or trust. Paul is telling us the obvious, we must know who Jesus is and trust Him to seek His help. But, the second question seems even more obvious, no one can believe unless they’ve heard of Him. If we stop there we are, maybe, off the hook, not my fault they have never been exposed to the truth. But Paul doesn’t stop there. Someone must preach to them. Does that also let me wiggle out of responsibility for them hearing the gospel, I’m not a preacher. One practice I use is to compare various versions when I have a question about a word of phrase. When I looked at this verse in the Amplified Version, there is a paratheses after preacher (messenger). That tells me that we don’t have to be the one standing in the pulpit on Sunday mornings to be responsible for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. We just need to be one who will share the message to those who need to hear.  

That brings us to our focal passage today, 2 Thessalonians 3: 1-2 

1Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Lord’s message may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you, 2 and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not all have faith. 

Paul is asking that they pray for him and those he has taught to be the preacher, messenger, so that the gospel will spread rapidly. Paul has an urgency about the message being shared as quickly as possible. What he is request is that all the church, body of believers, would pray for him to do what God has commissioned him to do, share the gospel. Are we praying for our pastors to be able to share the gospel every time they preach? Perhaps that is what God is leading your to do rather than be the one to speak the Word. It is the calling of each of us to pray for our leaders, especially our spiritual leaders. The message is to be honored. That word can mean triumphantly celebrated and glorified. We are to honor the preaching of His word by applying it to our lives and striving to change our actions by obeying His commands. Paul recognized that these believers had done that, they accepted the gospel and truth and now trust in Jesus Christ.  

What is the outcome of that acceptance? That they will be delivered from evil men. People who are unreasonable and wicked and do not have faith in God. Those are who will try to influence us to be like them, evil in the sight of the Lord. They will attempt to cause us to question our own faith. We can be rescued from them by spending time in the Word and with fellow believers.  

The way to avoid being overcome by the evil influences of the world is to spend time daily in His word, pray, have faith in God, and focus on His promises. When difficulties come God is our defense, He is our shield. We honor Him by sharing the gospel. We only must share the message; God through the Holy Spirit will do the rest to bring others to Him.