The next few posts will look at the first steps onto the bridges we need to cross to continue our journey to church health, which in our case means, a church with Effective Structures.
These first steps are decisions we make individually, as well as a church. These decisions determine whether we stay in our rickety, ineffectiveness structures or travel on the effective, mighty structures set up by God Himself.
The first decision connects us to the Holy Spirit.
A contented heart is what allows the Holy Spirit to be effective in our lives. Contentment is, I believe, that connection.
Over the summer holiday, I read the old Puritan Classic, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, the writer, Jeremiah Burroughs says "Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition."
Our initial decision to find contentment ONLY in God, in every condition, is just the beginning; we will learn to be more and more content. Even the Apostle Paul, wasn't naturally content; he had to learn to be content (Philippians 4:11-13), and Christ through His Spirit, will teach us the same lesson.
Contentment in God, prepares us for even more blessings and more of the Spirit. As self-sufficiency is pushed aside, the Spirit works more strongly in our lives. Burroughs calls contentment "a compound of grace" because almost all the fruit of the Spirit are "compounded in it".
Still, the first lesson, and maybe the hardest, is to decide to start being content just where we are right now. We need to realise that, if we have asked for the Holy Spirit, then we already "have" as much of the Spirit as God can safely give us.
So how much of the Spirit and of Jesus do we have? The Hebrews are told in 13:5,6, "...be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”
What a reason to be content. We indeed have "enough already!"
Photo source: Ian Waldie/Getty Images
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