Defeated and Discontented

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Romans 1:7)

Beloved of God – you are pleasing to God but you need to exercise your faith for it to manifest in your life (Ephesians 1:6 / Colossians 3:12 / Hebrews 11:6). God is not against you for your sins, He is for you against your sins. We are not at war with God (Romans 5:1), so we need to get on the right side of the battle. You don’t have to do things to get Him to love you and to bless you. In faith you are pleasing to God, and He wants to please you, you just need to get with the program. You can’t be fed lunch when you aren’t in the lunch line, stop complaining about being hungry and get in line.

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2). You have got to keep on keeping on, and give thanks to God no matter what (Job 13:15). You have got to “pray through” (Daniel 9:2-19). Don’t let the world, the flesh, and the devil steal your blessing (Mark 4). You hear the message, you know it is for you, you believe it, you receive it with joy, and then you go home and let it all slip away. Keep watching and keep praying (1 Peter 4:7).

Preachers, we need to be more concerned about what happens to our people after they leave the building, not just how excited they get when they are in the building. We need to teach people not only how to get it, but how to keep it. Continue in prayer, and abound in thanksgiving.

Abounding in thanksgiving means to be giving thanks a lot, but also that you will abound when you are in a continuously thankful attitude (Colossians 2:7). Remember the old hymn, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. This is the will of God (1 Thessalonians 5:18)! A.W. Tozer said that God wants to please you, but He will not do it if it will spoil you. We are beloved yet still discontent, and we are not ready for God’s blessing (Hebrews 13:5).

Proverbs 30:15-16 / Proverbs 27:20 – There are two sorts of discontentment, one good, and one very, very bad. There is spiritual discontentment and there is carnal discontentment. The heart of a carnally discontent person is comfortless. Wherever he goes, his ever-increasing misery goes with him. It is hell on earth. The flesh is a raging fire that will never be satisfied. The carnal nature can never be satisfied, if you are discontent, you are living out of your flesh. Our contentment must be in God (Colossians 3:3), or we will be discontent. Philippians 2:3-15 – Jesus was able to give up heaven and take on flesh because He was content in God.

James 4:1-2 – discontent originates in self. Self is the assertive principle in this agony of wars, fighting and murders. It is ‘your lusts that war . . .’ Self gives birth to carnal discontentment. This is always the case; there is no exception.

Psalm 127:2 (ESV) – It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Don’t be so anxious (Philippians 4:6).