“In Him we were also chosen, having
been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in
conformity with the purpose of His will.”
-Ephesians 1:11
What was the secret of Paul’s
contentment? Did he know something which we need to learn? Or has he succumbed
to the fatalism of life?
One: Paul
believed in the essential goodness of God, our Heavenly Father. Do you accept
that God is good and that His design for us includes fulfillment and happiness?
Paul Little, the head of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, wrote that the
bottom line of theology is the goodness of God. I came to see that he was
right. If there were no God, no heaven
or hell, no right or wrong, I would still advocate the same Biblical principle
of living, because these are the only keys to real happiness and fulfillment.
Two: The
Apostle Paul believed that what happens is of concern to our Heavenly Father.
Read what Jesus said in Matthew 6 about a sparrow falling to the ground and the
very hairs of your head being numbered.
Three: Paul
accepted the circumstances of life, events, and things which he could not
change, as an indication of the will of God for his life. Paul repeatedly made
this point as he wrote to friends scattered throughout Asia Minor. His
imprisonment was not the result of bad luck; it was the purpose of God, to give
him the opportunity to go before kings and rulers. Read Romans 8:28 and
Ephesians 1:11.
Four: Paul believed that God had a
personal will for his life, and yielding his own will to the will of God, he
found contentment in difficult times.
Contentment is the inner attitude of
the soul that realizes God cares and is in control of the circumstances.
Trusting Him produces what so many of us lack – contentment.
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