day no. 16,909: hungry and thirsty

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

The hungry do not complain about being compelled to eat again.

The thirsty do not complain about having to take another drink.

day no. 16,647: the feast of satisfaction

“Enough is as good as a feast.” — Laura Ingalls-Wilder

If you have enough, you have as much as one with too much. Our capacity to enjoy is often eclipsed by our rapacity to acquire, but a feast is not defined by how much waste is produced. It is rather a matter of how much satisfaction is found. A feast is wherever satisfaction is found.

1 Timothy 6:6

Godliness with contentment is great gain.

day no. 16,469: never little where much is needed nor more where less is required

“Give not little to whom you should give much, nor much to whom little, nor nothing to whom something, nor something to whom nothing.” — Asser, The Life of King Alfred (attributed to Pope Gregory therein)

God is not a skinflint but neither is He a spendthrift; that is to say, He does not waste anything or withhold anything good. He provides for His people. He determines the portion appropriate and provides no less than necessary nor more than needful. He does not spoil or spurn His children. He never gives little where much is needed nor more where less is required.

Proverbs 3:27

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

A good and godly man, like God, provides for his people. He works hard and procures the means necessary to bless them. He does not leave their welfare to chance or leave their nourishment to nuance. He makes his disciples his duty and his people the object of his piety. 

Romans 13:8

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

A good king gives what he can, pays what he owes, and does his duty before God and man. He does not skimp or soil. He does not set a table of crumbs, but neither does He scold when a crumb falls to the floor. He gives something to all and all to some. He withholds nothing from anyone and gives everything to no ones. 

A man must know what needs to be given, where to give it, how much of it is needed, and how to get it. Like David, he must work hard to set aside the right amount of the right things in order to have the best amount of everything.

1 Chronicles 29:2

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.

day no. 16,439: you do not better your lot by belittilng another's

“Be content with thine own lot, if thou canst not better it, but do not look upon thy neighbour, and wish that he were as thyself. Love him, and then thou wilt not envy him.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Be content with what you have and work hard for what you want, but do not look long and hard at what your neighbor has as though it is what you need in order to be content. Do not go further and wish his fortune away for the sake of your envy. Your neighbor's success should not be the source of your discontent. Let God give as He sees fit and free your neighbor from your audits and your soul from its bitterness.

Romans 12:15

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Envy turns this on its head by rejoicing when others weep and weeping when others rejoice. Envy gets miffed when its neighbors get what it wanted and gets a thrill out of seeing its neighbors deprived of what it desired. It would rather be assuaged by no one having what it wants than become grateful for a God who would give it to someone else.

All that to say, better your lot if you can and be content with the one that you currently have, but do not attempt to better your lot by belittling another's.

day no. 16,266: greatertude

"Thou that hast given so much to me,

Give one thing more, a grateful heart."

-- George Herbert, Gratefulness

We have more reasons to be grateful than we have ability to be thankful. We need God to give us grateful hearts. All that we have been given can only be enjoyed by the gift of gratitude. And even our gratefulness needs help. We do not give as much honor and respect as He gives grace and mercy. And so, we pray even for more mercy — mercy for the inadequacy of our humility. We beg for the grace to be more grateful. We do not need more for which to be grateful as much as we need to be more grateful for what we already have been given. We need greater gratitude. We need… greatertude. May we go forward with grit and grititude in making it our aim to be more grateful and finding ever increasing reasons to beg for gratitude to keep up with God's generosity.

day no. 16,210: be grateful for what you have and work for what you want

Philippians 4:12-13

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Sideways glances are often motivated by discontent and laziness. We are easily envious of those around us when we're hard to please with what surrounds us. We lust for that which we avoid the labor. We covet because we can't count our blessings. We want what others already worked for. The only cure is to be grateful for what you have and to work for what you want. This frees your eyes up to focus on God above and the good work ahead. It will spare them from sideways glances and self-indulgence. 

day no. 16,193: contentment is the best riches

1 Timothy 6:6-8

Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

Contentment the only currency capable of purchasing not needing whatever's being advertised.

“Contentment is the best riches.” -- C.S. Lewis

Money cannot buy the kind of luxury that only contentment can afford. If one of things you have in your bank account is contentment, you can afford to be happy without much else. 

Philippians 4:11-13

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Contentment has it all, regardless what it has.

Contentment is sales resistant.

You cannot sell discontent to a content man.

What can you sell a content man? What can you convince him to forfeit in order to gain what you have to offer if that man already has everything he wants?

day no. 16,177: do not be thermostatic or thermocentric

Do not be thermostatic or thermocentric.

The thermostatic cannot function anywhere outside of their preferred temperature zone. The thermocentric cannot think about anything other than finding a temperature zone in which life is always bearable. Do not limit your life and livelihood to 70 degrees and do not orient your entire life around getting everything to 70 degrees.

Be effective in whatever environment and adversities God determines for you.

Learn how to live through the cold of winters and the heat of summers.

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Be lethal in any environment. Be more dangerous than any danger you can face

day no. 12,943: believe, leave and cleave

When Christians start dating, they begin to draw closer and closer to each other.  This is the natural course of events as designed by God.  It is meant for the purpose of long, satisfying marital intimacy that grows in oneness until the marriage covenant is broken by death or Christ's return.

 

When the natural course of growing closer is expedited by sin, the Holy Spirit convicts and commands repentance which means turning around.  In that time of turning around, it feels like you're growing apart for the first time, but it only feels that way.  If you retreat to the right trajectory, you will be taking a few steps back, because you attempted to be too close too soon.  You wanted more oneness than your situation in God's sight allowed.

But if you return to the right trajectory, you will again begin to grow closer to each other and in individual godliness as you go about things God's way until coming together in oneness in marriage.  After that, you grow in oneness side-by-side and emotionally, spiritually, relationally and physically.

satisfied‏

All my life long I had panted

For a draught from some cool spring,

That I hoped would quench the burning

Of the thirst I felt within.

 

Hallelujah! I have found Him

Whom my soul so long has craved!

Jesus satisfies my longings;

Through His life I now am saved.

 

Feeding on the husks around me,

Till my strength was almost gone,

Longed my soul for something better,

Only still to hunger on.

 

Poor I was, and sought for riches,

Something that would satisfy,

But the dust I gathered round me

Only mocked my soul's sad cry.

 

Well of water, ever springing,

Bread of life, so rich and free,

Untold wealth that never faileth,

My Redeemer is to me

 

Listen and buy it HERE

a hand would be an even harder thing to give

Ecclesiastes 4:6

 

⁶ Better one handful with rest
than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind.

 

Contentment is not a result of finally getting what you want.

 

Two handfuls are better than one, right? I suppose it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. 

 

Two handfuls are better than one if you are in a “how many handfuls” contest, I suppose. However, two handfuls are not better than one if you are in a “lend-a-hand” contest.

 

To me, it's a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, "Hey, can you give me a hand?" You can say, "Sorry, got these sacks." ~ Jack Handey

 

If your hands are full, you have no intention or ability to lend a hand to another. If you lose your grip on something in one of your hands and your first impulse is to try to fill that hand up again, your heart is aimed at grabbing what you want at the cost of serving others to help them get what they need.

 

Contentment is not something that can be wrangled by sheer will power and effort. You cannot clamor for contentment fittingly enough.

 

The hard work of contentment is not in getting stuff, but in releasing stuff.

pop quiz hot shot

2 Corinthians 13:5

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

We periodically question or examine the salvation "status" of others.  Here the apostle encourages his hearers to examine their own faith and salvation.

A helpful way to do this is to consider the types of things that usually lead you question or examine another's faith.  What behaviors do you see that make you wonder if another is regenerate? What beliefs about Jesus pique your curiosity to consider and question another's adherence to the one, true Gospel?  What endeavors or alliances in which others participate lead you to wonder what their heart desires?  What fruit do you pick at in others?

Got your lists ready? Ok, now use all that we just covered and apply liberally to yourself.  By liberally of course I mean exhaustively, not liberally like applying them only when and where it feels good or loosely or not at all.

How do you know that you believe in Jesus? How do you know that Jesus Christ is in you? What do you believe and why do you believe it and is that in concert with what the Bible preaches?

These are great questions to ask on occassion and the hope of the apostle Paul and myself is that you would be found to have passed the exam.  The goal is not to always be in doubt.  The goal is to understand and appreciate the Gospel of God.  May it be that this exercise encourages your faith further and that if you find any disappointment in having fallen short, you find faith by which to lean on Jesus the more going forward.  May it be that this exam corrects any errors in thinking, believing, acting, or speaking in your heart, mind, and life.  May the exam diagnose accurately the disease that the cure may be all the more applied and appreciated for the Name and sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Now I lay me down to sleep

Ecclesiastes 5:12

Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

People who are hungry tend to be highly motivated to work.  Work = food.

Those who are rich, full, puffed up, self-sufficient, and satisfied in themselves will never find solace.  I think the philosopher P. Diddy said it best when he said, "Mo money, mo problems."  Although I believe when he said it he was going by Puff Daddy.

People clamor after the luxury of full stomachs and then find restlessness at night.  In our sinfulness, we always desire by nature that which cannot satisfy.  We wish for rest while chasing anxiety.  We invite our stomachs to be our god and then curse our god for robbing us of sleep.  We ask of the creation that which only the Creator can provide and get frustrated when it falls short.  We create the environment of our own dissatisfaction by requesting divinity of banality.

1 Corinthians 6:13a

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other.

The Co$t of Di$ciple$hip

Ecclesiastes 5:10

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Love is an all-consuming thing.  If you love something or someone, you cannot get enough of it or them.  There is always a desire for more.   This is a great gift of God and one implanted within us to draw us to Him, the never-ending source of all things.  It is precisely this feature God created in our spiritual DNA that will make an eternity with Him full of joy and expectation.  When we love Him, we cannot get enough of Him and He is the only Person or thing of which there will eternally be an abundance.

If you love money, you will always want more of it and do whatever it takes to protect the sum of it you have already obtained.  Money is finite.  There is only so much one can possess. There is only so much one can own and you never own all of it, despite your best efforts to the contrary. 

This craving for more and more has led many to wander from the faith and pierce themselves with many troubles.  They do it to themselves.  They come near the throne of grace and in the cost/benefit analysis of their life opt for money as a source of security rather than the Author of all currency.  If you choose the creation over the Creator, you will bring upon yourself much grief and anxiety unnecessarily.

Money is not evil.  The love of money is evil. 

No one can love two masters.  You will either love one and hate the other, or vice versa.  Two masters will have two different ideas of what is best and you will have to choose which master masters the other.  Ecclesiastes says it clearly:  those who love money will never be satisfied with money (no matter how much they have). 

Those who love God however will ever be satisfied in Him.  An infinte desire is met in an infinite Source.  The Giver of a insatiable appetite becomes Himself the eternal bread of life for us.  We are ever nourished and sated only by He who created our desire. 

P.S. If you cannot live off of $25,000/year, the problem is not that you need to make $40,000/year.  You need to learn to live within your means of $25,000/year.  The person who does not tithe off of $50,000/year will not tithe off of $100,000/year.  Do not deceive yourself.  If you have a hard time giving God $5,000/year, you will have a harder time giving $10,000/year, not an easier time.  Everyone is more saintly in the hypothetical future.  Don't justify today's rebellion by telling me about the obedience you will have when the sitation hopefully better suits you tomorrow.

It's not having what you want. It's wanting what you got.

Ecclesiastes 2:24-26a

24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy...

It is a sad thing to witness a man who has everything he could ever want and no ability to enjoy it. God may grant by His common grace a person an ability and/or talent that allows said person to accrue massive amounts of wealth and possessions. However, the ability to enjoy said wealth and possessions also is a gift from God.  One does not always necessitate the other.  Plenty of people have plenty of money that they have no ability to enjoy because they spend plenty of time worried about it (plenty).

More than the wealth and health and prosperity for which we so often pray, we would do ourselves well to pray for the ability to enjoy that which we have and that which we may receive in the future.

Having things is no guarantee of enjoying things. God holds even this in His hands.