scrip·ture | 1 Timothy 6:6-7 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
de·vo·tion | It was fall, and I drove into town with my mom to open up the Sears store she owned. As we walked up to the front door, I could see the bundle of magazines sitting there. “It’s here, it’s here” I yelled out. The fall Sears’s toy Christmas catalogue had come and the entire bundle was sitting right at my feet. Selfishly asking my mom if I could bring the bundle in, she said yes, I grabbed the magazines and promptly ran to the back room and cut it open.
I spent the rest of that morning looking at all the toys I
wanted to get. “Oh, I want that one!”
“Mom, look at these, I wish I could have both of these!” I continued to circle
toys I wanted to have, toys that were better than anything I had at home. These were toys that if I didn’t have them, I
would be the saddest little boy, because that meant I had to play with all
those useless toys I had at home.
Fast Forward | It is fall, and I drove up to my mailbox in front of my
house. As I opened the mailbox, I could
see the magazine sitting on top of all the other mail. “It’s here, it’s here” I yelled in my
head. The fall Northern Tool Christmas catalogue
had come. Selfishly I threw all the
other mail aside and started looking at all the tools I wanted to get. “Oh, I already have a hammer, but man, this
one has anti vibration!” “Oh, I wouldn’t have to manually turn my screw driver,
I could hook it up to my compressor and it will do it for me!” “Oh, I need a
new compressor to run the new screw driver I am going to get!” “I wish I could
get all of these things.”
Not much has changed has it?
As kids, we were always looking for the next best thing, looking for
that one toy that was going to bring us joy.
As kids, we were caught up in having a full toy box to choose from and
not content with the boxes full of toys in the attic. As an adult, I have a garage full of tools that
at one point was going to change my life.
I have 8 sets of screw drivers, 4 hammers, and thingamajig’s and
thingamajob’s that were to fill the void of the un-contentedness I was feeling
with me tools.
As a Christian, I find myself doing the same thing. I approach God like I do my fall Northern
Tool Christmas catalogue. I start asking
Him to give me this and to give me that, I wish I could have this and I wish I
could have that. I ask him to help me
get promoted or to give me something new to do, because what I am doing is just
not doing it for me anymore. If I could
just start looking to God less for improving my already blessed life and start
praising Him for what I have today. If I
could just start looking into what He has provided and find satisfaction in the
wonderful life that He has sent before me.
If I focus my prayers on the joy of His salvation and the simplicity in
His love and grace for us, maybe, just maybe, as the Rolling Stones famously penned,
“You can’t always get what you want; But if you try sometimes well you just
might find; You get what you need”
Prayer | LORD, I
find myself trying to identify just what it is I want that is going to create a
satisfaction in me. I am finding myself
looking, seeking, and asking You to help me find whatever that is that is going
to bring me more joy. LORD, I bow my
head to You, and ask you to forgive the foolishness that is in me. I praise You for just how wonderful You
are. I thank You so much for the
blessings you have put into my life. I
want this prayer to be a prayer ended in praise to You. No I wish, just I love You and thank You for
Your awesomeness! Amen
Daily Alone Time with
God |
Chapter of the Week |
Read Philippians 3
Mon·day | Matthew 6:25-26 25 “Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what
you will wear. Is not life more than
food, and body more than clothes? 26
Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
Tues·day | Hebrews 13:5 5 Keep your lives free from
the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Wednes·day | Ecclesiastes 3:13 13 That each of them may eat
and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil-this is the gift of God.
Thurs·day | Philippians 4:11 11 Not that I speak from
want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
Fri·day | Proverbs 30:8 8 Keep deception and lies
far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is
my portion,
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