Author: Brian Burdett

“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” – 1 Timothy 6:6-7

For most people 2020 hasn’t turned out exactly as planned! For some, it’s been devastating while for others it’s merely been endlessly exhausting and anxious. It’s been an ongoing reminder of how fragile life, our way of life, and our plans truly are.

It’s also provided an opportunity to reflect on what really matters: our relationship with God, inviting people into God’s Kingdom, spending time with those we love, caring for those in need. As some parts of our lives were radically simplified and others made dramatically more complex, God has given us an opportunity to cultivate the two qualities highlighted here: godliness and contentment.

Neither depends on our life circumstances. They don’t depend on our health, wealth, safety, or comfort. They depend on our heart and our growing relationship with God.

Godliness is the pursuit of a character like God’s. It’s about personal holiness, righteousness, rejection of sin, mercy, kindness, generosity, and grace. While we’ll never be perfectly godly, the Holy Spirit Who lives inside every Christ follower empowers us to pursue ever-increasing godliness. As every habit and pattern of life has been tossed in the air this year, it’s an excellent time to reshape our life to pursue godliness through prayer, Bible reading, meditation, and loving service.

Contentment is an extraordinary quality that enables us to quietly ride the stormy seas of life! Contentment flows out of our identity as children of God united with Christ, the knowledge that God loves us no matter what our circumstances may be, and our growing love for and satisfaction in God Himself. We grow content in difficult circumstances as we pursue God and find Him in the whirlwind. When we grab ahold of Him and refuse to let go, no matter what, we’ll find contentment each day, regardless of what actually happens.

Godliness and contentment are extraordinary gifts offered to every Christ-follower. Use the terrible disruptions of this year as an opportunity to pursue these, so that you may rise above the turmoil in the peace of God!

“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you.” – Jeremiah 44:16

People won’t always listen to God’s Word! While we eagerly desire for those with whom we share God’s hope, plan, and teachings to listen and respond favorably, that isn’t always going to happen. In fact, it may seldom happen. That doesn’t lessen our responsibility one bit.

Jeremiah’s ministry wasn’t a happy one. He proclaimed the word of God for many years, but nobody really listened and nobody changed their sinful behavior. That didn’t make his work less important or less anointed by God. His model of faithfulness should inspire us to minister faithfully even in unfruitful times and in the face of tremendous opposition.

As followers of God, we’re called to be faithful and to trust God to produce fruit according to His will and His timing. We can’t make people respond to the word of God or His offer of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We must trust God for that.

We’re responsible to be faithful in our conduct and our words at all times. We’re called to be faithful in sharing our hope in Christ, living and teaching the Word of God, and ministering in Christ’s name during fruitful seasons and during hard, dry spells. We must so ground our identity and work in Christ’s presence in our lives that we can be equally faithful when things are going great and when everyone harshly rejects what we have to say.

Lord, may we be faithful to you, no matter how the culture and people around us respond!

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” – 1 Timothy 2:1-4

This is a hard discipline in today’s hyper-partisan atmosphere! It’s hard to pray for people we fundamentally disagree with in every way, and yet there are certainly some of those at the federal, state, or local level for just about all of us! Followers of Jesus must never let our earthly political affiliation outweigh our obedience to Christ’s command that we pray for leaders at every level of government and of every political persuasion. We must pray for them faithfully today and pray for them faithfully in a few months even if they are completely different people!

This shouldn’t ever be about politics. This is about pleasing God, living as godly ambassadors in this fallen world, praying for the peace of the church in an increasingly un-peaceful society, and advancing the Kingdom of God. Here Paul explicitly links praying for leaders, including those friendly to the church AND those hostile to traditional Christianity, to the saving of many. We long for another great spiritual awakening to sweep across our country, but are we diligently offering the prayers God commands us to pray that are linked to such an awakening?

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” – 1 Timothy 1:15

Do you embrace this statement as truth? Every word of it? Do you embrace it as truth about you personally or do you think of it as simply a flowery saying of Paul?

Do you truly believe the mission and purpose of Christ entering our world was to save sinners? Do you personally believe you are the foremost of sinners? You should!

As followers of Jesus, we need to embrace every part of it for ourselves. Much of the weakness and ineffectiveness of the church in North America stems from the failure of each individual Christian to make this truth their own.

When we embrace this truth, we don’t need to be angry, confused, cynical, or frustrated about the actions and statements of those who don’t yet know Jesus. Of course sinners are going to sin – that’s why Jesus came! We can lovingly embrace them as part of the purpose of Christ and our personal mission field.

We should be seeking to make friends with sinners not avoid them. We should listen to them and speak to them of Christ. And we should do so humbly and gently because of our deep awareness of just how awful our own sin and rebellion against God were.

When we embrace this truth, we fall deeply and madly in love with Jesus Who saved us though we surely didn’t deserve it. We become excited to tell people of the incredibly good thing that happened to us: that God loved us and sent His Son to die for us, rather than damning us as we deserved.

When we’re living this truth, we have no room left to hate or condemn sinners we meet. We’re left with the burning desire of one miraculously recovering patient to offer the cure to another dying patient.

“May the Lord direct your hearts to God’s love and Christ’s endurance.” – 2 Thessalonians 3:5

Here’s a timely prayer for 2020! We have so little control over the challenging externals of our time: pandemic, election, civil breakdown, anger, injustice, recession, etc. However, in Christ we have access to all we need to not only endure the ups and downs of life, but to thrive, glorify God, and share Christ!

That won’t be our default human response. Our default human response will be to join in with those who are angry and hateful. It will be to succumb to resentment, frustration, and cynicism about “those people” (whoever we may think they are). Our default human response will be to become discouraged by the relentless tide of bad news and simply decide to give up. As Christians, we will still be tempted to indulge our human response – many Jesus-loving Christians have. But that isn’t what God wants for His people!

As followers of Jesus, we have access to the infinite riches and resources of God Himself! Through the Holy Spirit Who lives within every believer, our hearts can be filled with God’s love and Christ’s endurance regardless of our external circumstances. In Christ, we have the power to love others powerfully and deeply amidst a world full of anger and hatred. In Christ, we have the power to endure every curveball, setback, obstacle, and outright attack of this present moment.

To tap into these resources, we must walk daily with God, spending time with Him in prayer and in reading His Word. We must worship Him often, think of Him often, and serve Him often. As we do, we’ll discover that His mercy, grace, and provision are new every day and His love will fill us to overflowing.