Find True Contentment for the New Year

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

PHILIPPIANS 4:11-13

 

PONDER THIS

Paul wrote this passage from prison. He learned how to be content in everything, even in situations you and I would definitely complain about. He famously said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And that literally means, I can do all things through Christ who is pouring His life into me. Learn a life of contentment. Have the contentment of His provision. The deepest need of your heart can be met in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am content in the Lord Jesus. That doesn't mean I'm satisfied with myself. That doesn't mean I don't have any ambition. I, along with the Apostle Paul, can say gladly and surely, “I can do all things through Christ who is pouring His life into me,” and “I have learned that in whatsoever state I am, to be content.” If you would face a new year without fear, if you want the source of satisfaction, the source of sufficiency, and the source of security, look to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When is it most difficult for you to be content? How is this possible with God?

How will you seek contentment in Christ? How would that change your goals and ambitions for the year?

PRACTICE THIS

Look at your New Year’s Resolutions and consider what is pointing toward or away from contentment in Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

Acts 2:24

[24] God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

John 10:11

[11] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Hebrews 10:29

[29] How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

Isaiah 54:10

    [10] For the mountains may depart

        and the hills be removed,

    but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,

        and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”

        says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Outfitted and Empowered

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 

(Hebrews 13:20–21)

Christ shed the blood of the eternal covenant. By this successful redemption, he obtained the blessing of his own resurrection from the dead. That is even clearer in Greek than it is in English, and here it’s clear enough: “God . . . brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus . . . by the blood of the eternal covenant.” This Jesus — raised by the blood of the covenant — is now our living Lord and Shepherd.

And because of all that, God does two things: 

1. He equips us with everything good that we may do his will, and 
2. He works in us that which is pleasing in his sight.

The “eternal covenant,” secured by the blood of Christ, is the new covenant. And the new covenant promise is this: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). Therefore, the blood of this covenant not only secures God’s equipping us to do his will, but also secures God working in us to make that equipping successful. 

The will of God is not just written on stone or paper as a means of grace. It is worked in us. And the effect is: We feel and think and act in ways more pleasing to God.

We are still commanded to use the equipment he gives: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But more importantly we are told why: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13).

If we are able to please God — if we do his good pleasure — it is because the blood-bought grace of God has moved from mere equipping to omnipotent transforming.

  John Piper 

Honoring God by Honoring Others

“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” 1 PETER 2:15-17

 

PONDER THIS

An attitude of rebellion is as bad as rebellion itself. We’re to honor every person of every culture, young or old, Christian or not, because the image of God is to be honored! The word honor is the word from which we get our word preciousness. You know the line in that beloved children’s song? “They are precious in His sight.” All people are intrinsically precious to God. Do you believe that? I hope you do. I don’t care who they are or what they have. The Bible says to honor all people.

And then, regarding church life, in verse 17, it says: “Love the brotherhood.” There is a special love that we’re to have for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I love all people, but my wife is my beloved. She is above all other women in my life. And in the Christian world, our brothers and sisters in Christ are special. We’re to love one another with a unique love, and in so doing, we honor Christ.

Why does it matter to God that we respect all people? When is that hard to do?

What are some barriers to honoring and loving one another?

PRACTICE THIS

Go out of your way to show honor and love to another person today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

1 Thessalonians 4:16

[16] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

2 Thessalonians 1:10

[10] when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Acts 1:11

[11] and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Romans 5:9

[9] Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

A Horrible Destiny

. . . Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)

Do you remember the time you were lost as a child, or slipping over a precipice, or about to drown? Then suddenly you were rescued. You held on for “dear life.” You trembled for what you almost lost. You were happy. Oh, so happy, and thankful. And you trembled with joy.

That’s the way I feel at the end of the year about my rescue from God’s wrath. All day Christmas we had a fire in the fireplace. Sometimes the coals were so hot that when I stoked it my hand hurt. I pulled back and shuddered at the horrendous thought of the wrath of God against sin in hell. Oh, how unspeakably horrible that will be!

Christmas afternoon I visited a woman who had been burned over 87 percent of her body. She has been in the hospital since August. My heart broke for her. How wonderful it was to hold out hope to her from God’s word for a new body in the age to come! But I came away not only thinking about her pain in this life, but also about the everlasting pain I have been saved from through Jesus.

Test my experience with me. Is this trembling joy a fitting way to end the year? Paul was glad that “Jesus . . . delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). He warned that “for those who . . . do not obey the truth . . . there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:8). And “because of [sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness] the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6).

Here at the end of the year, I am finishing my trek through the Bible and reading the last book, Revelation. It is a glorious prophecy of the triumph of God, and the everlasting joy of all who “take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17). No more tears, no more pain, no more depression, no more sorrow, no more death, no more sin (Revelation 21:4).

But oh, the horror of not repenting and not holding fast to the testimony of Jesus! The description of the wrath of God by the “apostle of love” (John) is terrifying. Those who spurn God’s love will “drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:10–11).

“And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). Jesus will “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19:15). And blood will flow “from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 184 miles” (Revelation 14:20). Whatever that vision signifies, it is meant to communicate something unspeakably terrible.

I tremble with joy that I am saved! But oh, the holy wrath of God is a horrible destiny. Flee this, brothers and sisters. Flee this with all your might. And let us save as many as we can! No wonder there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous (Luke 15:7)!

John Piper 

Authority Through Submission

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-8

 

PONDER THIS

How are we going to exercise kingdom authority in the world? By submission. You may think, “Submission doesn’t sound like authority.” That’s the secret. Remember, the centurion said something like this to Jesus: “I know how You operate. I know why You have authority over this disease, because I also am a man set under authority. And I say to this man, ‘Go’ and he goes, and to this man, ‘Come’ and he comes. All You need to do is to speak the word and my servant will be healed, for I know how You work.” And Jesus said: “I’ve not seen faith like this in all the land of Israel.” That centurion understood submission.

What is submission? Submission is voluntarily placing oneself under the authority of another that God may be glorified. Submission is getting under the authority God has established. When you submit yourself to some governmental authority, you’re not doing it for his or her sake; you’re doing it for Jesus’ sake. God has established authority everywhere, and He is behind all authority. You’re not submitting to some human being; you’re submitting ultimately to Almighty God.

What are some ways you have opportunity to submit? How is that challenging?

Who are the hardest people for you to submit to? Why? How can Jesus help you with godly submission?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for someone you have a hard time submitting to, then make it a point to encourage that person in some way.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers