“Philippians 4:13 is not about personal empowerment. It is not a promise that you can become anything you want when you grow up if you want it badly enough. It certainly isn’t assurance that you’ll win an athletic contest or find success in your job.” - Kindle Afresh
“The false idea that prosperity brings contentment is nothing new. Paul warned Timothy and the church at Ephesus about false teachers—first-century equivalents to modern prosperity theology proponents” - Randy Alcorn
“Bitterness is poison dipped in honey. It tastes sweet going down, then it kills us from the inside out. In this way, bitterness is the poster child for the deceitfulness of sin.” - TGC
“Content[ment] is the philosopher’s stone which turns all it touches into gold; happy is he who has found it. Content[ment] is more than a kingdom, it is another word for happiness. —C. H. Spurgeon” - C.Leaders
“…the research behind the World Happiness Report asks respondents to rate their lives on a scale of one to ten, with ten representing ‘the best possible life for you,’ and one representing the worst. …. the key, says Savolainen, is their low expectations. They don’t expect much, so they are highly satisfied, and, thus, very ‘happy.’” - Veith
We’re a week or so into February, so today’s article has a bit of romance for Valentine’s Day and much application (finding happiness in life) for the other days of the year. I came across this true account from Reader’s Digest:
My cell phone quit as I tried to let my wife know that I was caught in freeway gridlock and would be late for our anniversary dinner. I wrote a message on my laptop asking other motorists to call her, printed it on a portable inkjet and taped it to my rear windshield.
When I finally arrived home, my wife gave me the longest kiss ever. “I really think you love me,” she said. “At least 70 people called and told me so.”
What should we do when the wicked prosper?
Like most of you, I’m deeply concerned with a lot that’s taking place in our country. Godless ideologies are rapidly becoming mainstream as wicked people in powerful positions of influence relentlessly advance their agendas. Those who try to resist are marginalized or “cancelled.” The alarming success of the wicked cannot be ignored. It’s reshaping our culture, worldview, relationships, and freedoms. One can only imagine what might be on the horizon if the wicked continue to prosper in their endeavors.
“So how can we discern the root of our discontentment? Is it one of the ways we image God as we cultivate his world? Sinful preoccupation with our own comfort and status? Frustration with brokenness and a desire to reknit the fabric of creation?” - TGC
Mark and Nancy Sheppard began missionary service in the nation of Liberia, but God had an agenda of personal transformation neither of them expected. Nancy has written about that experience in her recent book, Confessions of a Transformed Heart. We asked Nancy to tell us a bit about her experience in Africa and her aims in writing the book.
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Some people love a good conspiracy. Others avoid them like the plague. Stephen Altrogge believes that whether we like it or not we are all part of one big conspiracy. This is not a conspiracy like those involving Area 51 or Lee Harvey Oswald. It is bigger and more sinister. It is a cosmic conspiracy.
In his new book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence, Altrogge explains this cosmic conspiracy we are all part of:
It’s a conspiracy between the world, my heart, and Satan to steal my happiness. These three are plotting and scheming together to make me perpetually discontent. They’re stubbornly determined to poison the joy I have in God and to deceive me into believing that I can find happiness somewhere other than God. They want me to dishonor God by gorging on the unsatisfying pleasures of the world instead of finding true joy and satisfaction in Christ. (p. 12)
So what is this conspiracy trying to perpetuate in our lives? Discontentment—specifically, discontentment with what God has given us in Christ.
Where does this discontentment come from? My circumstances or others around me? No—it comes from me. In reference to Mark 7:21-23, Altrogge points out the following:
The problem is me. I am my own worst enemy. The raging, covetous, discontented desires come from within. They’re not the product of my circumstances, and the desires won’t be satisfied when circumstances change. (p. 17)
Throughout Scripture we see that God is the center of the universe and its activities. That means I am not. God made me for Himself (Isa. 43:6-7). “Discontentment begins when I start trying to be God….when I attempt to displace God from his rightful place at the center of the universe” (p. 24).
