A Remedy Against Kingdoms of Ashes - Part 2
Content on who we are in Christ.There is no greater characteristic that displays true Christian maturity than that of contentment. True and genuine contentment demands that we fully rest in the fact that God is sovereign over His creation and we are here for the purpose of glorifying Him. Period.That said, the very nature of the Fruits of the Spirit that we bear (Gal. 5:22-23) are for thosethat our lives come into contact with. Because unlike the uninvolved God of Deism, Christwas ‘Immanuel, God with us.’ (Matt. 1:23) He walked among the lost, taught them, ate withthem, made Himself fully accessible to the community at large, and with only five syllableschanged the funeral of Lazarus into a contest to see whose eyes and mouth could open the widest.
As Mark Dever rightly explains, "You and I cannot demonstrate love or joy or peace or patience or kindness sitting all by ourselves on an island. No, we demonstrate it when the people we have committed to loving give us good reasons not to love them, but we do anyway.”
There is absolutely nothing more shocking than a content being who dwells in the midst of those perishing, running recklessly in pursuit of a godless banner reading ‘live fast / die pretty’. The Apostles experienced this firsthand seeing Christ sleep during a life-threatening storm.Otherwise, in order to keep pace with a society that will never obey the command to simply ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ [Psalm 46:10] we shovel gallon after gallon of Red Bull into mouths, forcing ourselves into sleep-depraved states of irritability or depression.The ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ of our lives pace should always be in tandem with that whichhonors the Lord; the Apostle Paul understood this better than most, thus he could say,” …for 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.” Philippians 4:11-13In our daily osmosis with the culture around us, while gaining an understanding of it, we must simultaneously weigh that understanding against Scripture thereby to ‘destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ’. II Corinthians 10:5.In doing so we will find rest from life’s distractions and contentment in Christ.Ezra Boggs is a regular contributor to The Paradox blog.