Is Your Contentment Followed By Gratefulness? Series

We all taste the need to belong from the very moment we're being introduced to this world. It never leaves us because where we come from is a place of illumination by grace and love. It is anything this world isn't.

If we're not rooted in God's Word by godly parents from the get-go; that need can carry us through numerous mistakes. Though mistakes are inevitable due to our fallen nature; certain ones that end up dragging us through unnecessary misery and degradation, shame and humiliation would have no other purpose than to hinder our walk as followers of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:31 reads, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." We are expected to follow Christ's footsteps. He is the one who paid the ultimate price for our salvation. There is no excuse for being sloppy in our walk if we honestly desire to go back to our eternal fellowship with God, and take up where we left off.

That relationship starts now. And unless we learn to live in gratefulness through it all, even during our sufferings, we are not in complete fellowship with the Lord, our God. Romans 5:3-5 says it this way, "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." God already knows everything about us; including all our flaws and all our needs. He doesn't need to be constantly reminded of all that through our prayers to him. All He wants from us is our worship, wrapped in gratefulness, just as He deserves it. As a matter of fact; gratefulness is the main key to God's heart. And the lack of it, even if we're living in contentment; will bring our relationship down a notch or two. Romans 1:21 explains, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Contentment alone may come from a place where we may have said, "I'm okay with this much. Who am I to expect more?" If so, it only represents defeat. And we're supposed to be conquerors. That's our definition from the Bible.

If we've truly understood and received God's gift of salvation through Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross; we can't help but watch gratefulness ooze through our pores. Therefore, my brothers and sisters; contentment that is not accompanied by gratefulness, cannot and will not produce the praise and the worship God expects of us. Please know the difference.

Blessings...