What am I missing?
Posted on 02/17/2020 5:07:46 AM PST by metmom
"I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am" (Phil. 4:11).
Discontent and ingratitude will steal your joy.
True joy is God's gift to every believer, yet many Christians seem to lack it. How can that be? Did God fail them? No. As with peace, assurance, and other benefits of salvation, joy can be forfeited for many reasons: willful sin, prayerlessness, fear, self-centeredness, focusing on circumstances, and lack of forgiveness are the main culprits.
Two of the most common joy-thieves are dissatisfaction and ingratitude. Both are by-products of the health, wealth, and prosperity mentality of our day. It has produced a generation of Christians who are more dissatisfied than ever because their demands and expectations are higher than ever. They've lost their perspective on God's sovereignty and have therefore lost the ability to give thanks in all things.
In marked contrast, when Jesus taught about contentment and anxiety (Matt. 6:25-34), He spoke of food and clothing—the basic necessities of life. But preferences, not necessities, are the issue with us. We're into style, personal appearance, job satisfaction, earning power, bigger homes, and newer cars. In the name of greater faith we even demand that God supply more miracles, more wealth, and more power.
Amid all that, Paul's words sound a refreshing note of assurance and rebuke: "I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am" (Phil. 4:11). He made no demands on God but simply trusted in His gracious provision. Whether he received little or much made no difference to him. In either case he was satisfied and thankful.
Don't be victimized by the spirit of our age. See God's blessings for what they are and continually praise Him for His goodness. In doing so you will guard your heart from dissatisfaction and ingratitude. More important, you will bring joy to the One who is worthy of all praise.
Suggestions for Prayer
Pray that the Holy Spirit will produce in you a joy and contentment that transcends your circumstances. Make it a daily practice to thank God for specific blessings and trials, knowing that He uses both to perfect His will in you. For Further Study
Read 1 Kings 18:1—19:8.
How did Elijah deal with the false prophets of Baal? How did he deal with Jezebel's threat? What caused Elijah's shift from a spiritual high to a spiritual low?
The vast majority of us are linear thinkers.
Others out there have a random access memory bank at their beck and call.
and be purged of the Demon of Downness.
I've never had an issue with that obvious set-up at all. But that doesn't mean I'm going to intentionally ping people who are going to get agitated over uplifting themes and/or seemingly unimportant data, or read things into a post, or even suspect that I'm on something, or who just don't take kindly to joyful, positive commments that aren't coming from the business-as-usual model. I just post what I see. I don't even expect replies.
And this post isn’t any better and it’s not got a thing to do with joy that surpasses all understanding or that you have some spiritual insight that others don’t have. It’s just downright incoherent.
Well, I was responding specifically to you because of your question to me, asking if I were on something.
Joseph must have been "on" something, because you can't keep a good man down. He thought to relay his dreams, and ended up in Egypt!
"Incoherent" is a relative term. I don't speak or understand French, so if somebody came up to me trying to have a conversation in French, his words would be incoherent to me. Those who know French would know what he was saying just fine. It would be pretty weird if the French-comprehending people were denigrated by the non-French-comprehending people for having some kind of insight that they lacked.
After all, if they wanted to know what was being said, they could start learning French. Baby steps. (I watched What About Bob last night.)
As for pure simple joy and fun, they seem to be alien concepts to more than a few folks. If it weren't for negative waves, those poor people would make no waves at all.
Personally, I think the God of Abraham is just the best. The bee's knees. Of all the facts that He decided were worth inclusion in His Book - and that it's a pretty small book considering - He thought it was important for everyone to know for example, that...
1 Samuel 25:18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
Not three bottles of wine mind you, just two. Five sheep, and not six or seven. He even tossed in a word of French.
Really, who would gravitate to a fellow like that? Sounds like some kind of OCD data junkie, yikes.
Because the next thing you know, He'd be the type to pull out His wallet with the 1000 photos of the grandkids, and start describing how this one has twelve sons and these are the names...
It's all quite funny!
Thesaurus?!
Mr. Roget’s got a long way to go in order to catch up with Rankin-Bass! :)
People love to hate those clay-mations, but Kris Kringle knew the real deal.
Thesaurus: one of the very few to survive the Chicxulub impactor!!
Boy,did this thread take a nosedive. Well, if people don’t want to be inspired and happy, you can’t make them. Life is what it is . . . and then you die. Make the best of it, okay?
It's the Angel of unspeakable JOY!!
Sorry bro, but I don’t know if it’s funny or not, since I have no idea what you are talking about, in any of your posts. I guess the question I would like to ask, do you believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, promised in Genesis 3:15?
Anyway, Metmom, Amir Tsarfati, formerly of the Israeli Defense Forces, and former deputy governor of Jericho, the same Jericho that Joshua fought the battle of, has, along with Barry Stagner, pastor of Calvary Chapel, Tustin, CA, a great expose on the New Apostolic Reformation, and their kundalini spirit. Justin Peters has a good one on the word of faith movement, otherwise known as the name it, claim it gospel.
Amir Tsarfati, was an Orthodox Jew, who found the truth about Jesus of Nazareth, through Campus Crusade for Christ. Some Jews actually DO believe that Jesus of Nazareth IS the TRUE Messiah. Maybe not many, but some do. 😁👍
And their random word generator.
It must be being rented out to other FReepers.
/s
I’m sure if you ask the right people, you could get a turn on it and be happy again.
I’ve watched some of Justin Peters on that topic.
He was very good.
We have seen some of those, and some random scripture generators too. 😁
It's really simple:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin porttitor nisi eget
blandit semper. Morbi dictum urna eu condimentum viverra. Etiam sed nisl at
magna suscipit faucibus eget id magna. Ut imperdiet viverra leo ac vestibulum.
Nullam sit amet ipsum nec justo euismod eleifend nec ac dolor. Praesent commodo
scelerisque dignissim. Vivamus non velit justo. Vestibulum et vestibulum lorem.
Pellentesque ullamcorper hendrerit euismod. Orci varius natoque penatibus et
magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
Accused in a mailed memorandum
Some claimed that our words were quite random,
They said we were crazy,
for our meanings were hazy;
“Not quite; they appeal to our fandom!”
What am I missing?
Yes, it is Hinduism.
Like I can speak Wakandan.
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