Contentment (Keith Nurse)

Godliness with contentment is great gain

1 Timothy 6:6

 

2020 has unfolded in ways none of us could have imagined. The routines and patterns of daily life have been turned on their head, and there are so many things that we’re having to learn to do very differently or to accept that we can’t do at all.

 

In the midst of all this one of the particular challenges I’ve found has been avoiding dwelling on all the things I feel I’ve lost or don’t have, and instead focusing on what I do have. The Bible speaks in a number of places about the idea of contentment, which we’ll be thinking about this week.

 

Some 400 years ago Jeremiah Burroughs wrote The rare jewel of Christian contentment, in which he described contentment as “that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”

 

Paul often faced hardship and deprivation as a minister of the Gospel, including his own times of lockdown in prison, denied many of the freedoms and opportunities he was used to. Today he reminds us that having true contentment is really important, and that it comes to life when accompanied by godliness, our readiness to live a fruitful and obedient Christian life.

 

A prayer - God our Father, grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise, so that in all the changes and chances of this uncertain world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

 

Keith Nurse