Contentment

     People have always told me, "Be content with God, and then move forward with the next step in your life." But I have come to realize that a person who becomes "content" in their walk with Christ have instead become a religious person who just checks off "religious boxes". The "religious boxes" I am talking about are, going to church, praying, doing your quiet time, and tithing. You know, the basic things you should do when you are a Christian. All of these exercises of faith are wonderful until you turn them into a chore. Contentment seems to make our walk with Christ plateau. We seem to come to a point and say we are a good Christian just to please ourselves. We sometimes do this subconsciously to give us a slight moment of pride and peace. Contentment now becomes something attainable instead of something we are pressing on towards. 
     Contentment can be a dangerous act that can cause us to become fruitless and not passionate about the desire of our Lord. We should never just be content with where we are in our faith. Paul says in Philippians 3:12-14: "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." In our Christian walk there is no stopping, we are always pressing on. 
     I am not saying that the Lord cannot satisfy, but we should long for more and more of Him, always. We can be content in our sufferings because we know that Christ is doing a work in our life. That does not mean our walk of Faith has plateaued; instead it means that we have an opportunity to press up the mountain of hardship for a greater glory. "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."  1 Peter 1:6-7
     We also can be content with God's love for us, because that will never change. If God's love is all we have we can and will make it. His love will satisfy us, even when we feel we have no one in our lives. "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." 1 John 4:16 
     The fulfillment of contentment comes when we daily ask to be sanctified, humbled, and led by the Spirit. Contentment does not mean you stop pressing forward. Contentment is not something that you will reach in this earthly life. Contentment is an eternal goal of gaining God's consuming presence in all aspects of our life.