Comments on: Contentment Is Not Complacency

By: Festival of Frugality #226 – Earth Week 2010 Edition @ Beating Broke

Festival of Frugality #226 – Earth Week 2010 Edition @ Beating Broke — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:03:55 +0000

[...] Provident Plan details why Contentment is not Complacency. [...]

By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:05:41 +0000

Paul, what a great comment on Satan by you and Kevin. This is so on the mark. My flesh can be so weak at times especially as I struggle with health issues but I must look to the Lord as my only source of contentment.

By: Paul Williams

Paul Williams — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:09:47 +0000

Not a problem, Kevin! It’s a good point. I see what you mean about there being nothing to resist if we don’t believe in Satan. I think the Bible is quite clear that he is against us and puts every effort into trying to cause us to stumble and fall away from God.

If Satan is not the source of temptation and evil, then it only exists within our minds. It would be ourselves that we must resist. While we do have a fallen nature, we were created to be creatures of good – to glorify God. We are weak in our flesh, but the temptations we face do not originate within us – they are the attacks of Satan designed to cause us to sin.

By: Kevin@OutOfYourRut

Kevin@OutOfYourRut — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:56:30 +0000

Interesting that you bring Satan into the discussion Paul. I think we miss something when we ignore the “Satan factor”. It kind of unifies and even personifies evil, and I think we need to do that, otherwise we can sink into the trap of thinking there really is no good or evil and it’s all relative.

Even many Christians doubt the existence of Satan and Hell. If you believe in neither, there’s really nothing to resist.

(Once again I’m taking the subject at hand off a cliff!)
.-= Kevin@OutOfYourRut´s last blog ..How to Buy Health Insurance Without Paying Too Much =-.

By: Paul Williams

Paul Williams — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:06:37 +0000

Thank you for your comment, Donna! Satan focuses a lot of time and energy on pulling our hearts away from God. We can get so blinded by the desires of the world that we can’t see the wonderful Gift God has given us and the contentment He brings. We have to actively fight against the lies of Satan and rely on God’s power to change our hearts.

By: Donna

Donna — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:58:49 +0000

It is so seductive to live with the current culture for many people. People do not want to be seen as different. However, as Christians we are called to be different. I do struggle at times but when I sit down and read God’s loving gift to us, the Bible, I just feel the contentment that we can only find in Him. God bless Paul and thanks for the great post, as usual.

By: Paul Williams

Paul Williams — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:21:20 +0000

Precisely! Jesus didn’t teach us to live in a way that blends in with society. He calls us to live radically different – to turn the world’s ideas upside down. Too often, we don’t seem to get that. I often don’t myself even though I think about it quite frequently.

By: Kevin@OutOfYourRut

Kevin@OutOfYourRut — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:07:19 +0000

So true. Even as believers, we’re often so concerned with making Christianity fit into the buffet table of our lives that we miss the truly radical nature of it, the kind that demands that we come out and be different.

As well intentioned as it may seem on the surface, we often become preoccupied with some sort of good neighbor policy that enables us to blend into society. True Christianity is TRANSforming, not CONforming.
.-= Kevin@OutOfYourRut´s last blog ..OutOfYourRut Friday Personal Finance Round Up #3 =-.

By: Paul Williams

Paul Williams — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:22:12 +0000

You’re right, Kevin. The busyness of life can drown out God’s voice. We must take time to step out of the rush and seek Him. But our culture teaches us that we don’t have time to slow down because we must always be working to raise our standard of living.

Contentment in Christ helps us break free from that false view and find the time to slow down and listen quietly to God. It’s counter-cultural, but so is most (maybe all) of what Christ taught us.

By: Kevin@OutOfYourRut

Kevin@OutOfYourRut — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:04:16 +0000

This is so counter-cultural! We live in a culture in which constant motion (not always forward) is equivalent to “living”. If you’re not moving, you’re not living.

But if we’re in constant motion, it’s that much harder to see God in our everyday lives. It’s usually in the stillness that only contentment can bring that we come close to God and to understanding his will. Now that we’re essentially a secular culture, constant motion may have evolved in to the preferred state of being.

As believers, it’s so important that we resist the cultural bias, and do what we’re called to do, to “seek that still, small voice”. That’s getting harder to do all the time with the increase in clutter an busy-ness of all sorts.
.-= Kevin@OutOfYourRut´s last blog ..OutOfYourRut Friday Personal Finance Round Up #3 =-.