'And having food and raiment let us be therewith content'
(1Timothy 6:8).
To be content is gain! The Scripture says godliness with contentment is great gain. Here we see Paul speaking from personal experience about contentment - to lack or be in need. As believers, our goal should be to focus on having daily essentials and living for God, not wealth and luxury. When we desire wealth or money, we can easily fall into temptation. In saying this, nothing is wrong in acquiring wealth. We see people in the Bible who did have wealth but kept their focus on God. It is God who we should seek first and everything else will be given us by Him, as our needs be. Paul States in Philippians 4:11 that, he has learned to be content in whatever state he may be. He knows how to be full and how to be hungry and to suffer need. Whatever God as entrusted to us, we need to be satisfied. If God has provided us with the basic necessities of having food and raiment, let us be content and give thanks to Him. We must also remember, we have brought nothing in this world and neither will we take nothing out. Paul encouraged Timothy to not love money because it is a trap with inherent danger, that Satan uses to control and rule the world. As Christians we should be aware of such trap as it will affect us too. When we have much wealth, we sometimes tend to forget God and think we have enough and not in need of God. That's Satan trap! In Matthew 13:22 it tells us that, the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches tend to choke God's Word and keep us from ever producing fruit. Let us not love money as much, that it leads us away from God. Let us not fall in love with our wealth, that we forget others who are in dire need and stray from the Lord our God. We can not serve two masters, we will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despite the other. You cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24). To help us avoid the love of money or wealth; let us seek to pursue godliness by practicing spiritual discipline, such as being in constant prayer, spending quality time in the Word, serve each other and fellowship with our brethren. We must also learn to be content - to rely on God's sufficiency; learn to live simple lives and keep our eyes on Jesus.
Have a wonderful day and a blessed weekend
'But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you' (Matthew 6:33). The Lord is our Provider and knows all that we are in need of before we even ask. We do not need to worry or fret ourselves about what we shall eat or drink. Our Father in heaven will take care of these things we need. We are told by Jesus, 'To seek first the kingdom of God.' What does that mean? It means we should lean on, and trust in the grace of Jesus Christ. We should repent of our sins and have a desire to turn away from it. We should seek to put God first in our praise to Him, in our worship of Him, to put our total trust in Him and to rely on Him rather than ourselves or others. We need to seek Him first in our reassurance and acknowledging who He is and what He can do. We also need to seek God's righteousness by loving our neighbors and feeding the poor and destitute, seek justice for the vulnerable. We should put God's plan and...
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