Biblical contentment is not rooted in what we have or the circumstances we are in, Biblical contentment is rooted in the person and character of God.
Contentment
Nursery for Heaven
The book, The Valley of Vision is a collection of puritan prayers. This book was my first introduction to the writings of the puritans, and it completely blew me away! I honestly had never heard (read) anyone pray with so much devotion, so much awareness of their personal sin and the holiness of God.
I am very thankful to the puritans for writing down their prayers, without which this book would not have been possible. In my opinion, no Christian home should be without this book. The puritans were mostly known for their deep prayer life and meditation on scripture.
The prayers in this book caught my attention like no other. My prayers can be sometimes selfish and self-centered, all about me and what I want: my protection, my provision, my success, my family’s protection, etc. While there is nothing inherently wrong with asking God for those things, our personal needs can become idols when we don’t put them in their properly place. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He started the prayer asking for God’s name to hallowed, for His kingdom to come and for His will to be done on earth as in heaven. Jesus taught us to pray with the glory of God in mind. At the heart of the prayers of the puritans is the glory of God. This should be at the heart of our prayers as well.
I would love to share one of the prayers from “The Valley of Vision” titled “The Family”. This prayer can be found on page 208. The prayer seemed to have been written by a woman (I think). What caught my eye about this prayer is the way she dedicates her home & family to God. She prays for her domestic duties and the raising of her children to be blessed and used for the glory of God, asking in her prayers for her home to be a nursery for heaven!
Ladies, your duties as a wife and mother at home are sacred duties meant to bring glory to God. I pray this prayer will encourage you to see your duties in raising your kids and being a keeper at home as a sacred service to God.
The Family
O Sovereign Lord,
You are the Creator-Father of all men,
for you have made and support them;
You are the special Father of those who know, love, and honour you,
who find your yoke easy, and your burden light,
your work honourable,
your commandments glorious.
But how little your undeserved goodness has affected me!
How imperfectly have I improved my religious privileges!
How negligent have I been in doing good to others!
I am before you in my trespass and sins,
have mercy on me,
and my your goodness bring me to repentance.
Help me hate and forsake every false way,
to be attentive to my condition and character,
to bridle my tongue,
to keep my heart with all diligence,
to watch and pray against temptation,
to kill sin,
to be concerned for the salvation of others.
O God, I cannot endure to see the destruction of my kindred.
Let those who are united to me in tender ties
be precious in your sight and devoted to your glory.
Sanctify and prosper my domestic devotion,
instruction, discipline, example,
that my house may be a nursery for heaven,
my church the garden of the Lord,
enriched with the trees of righteousness of your planting,
for your glory;
Let not those of my family who are amiable, moral, attractive,
fall short of heaven at last;
Grant that the promising appearances of a tender conscience,
soft heart, the alarms and delights of your Word,
be not finally blotted out, but bring forth judgement to victory
in all whom I love.
Amen…. (emphasis mine)
Ladies: I would love to hear your thoughts on this prayer in the comments. Thanks.
Theologian Mom
In order to fulfill their God given roles of wife and mother, Christian moms need to know what the Lord requires of them. All that we need for life and godliness has been revealed in the Bible (2Peter 1:3). We need to study it like our lives depend on it, because it really does.
Christian parents are called by God not just to raise any kind of child, but to raise “godly offspring”.
Malachi 2:15
Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
The responsibility of raising godly offspring falls on both parents, with dad being the head of the house. However, moms are the ones that are usually more involved in the everyday process than dads. They are the ones that take care of all the details of nurturing and training. Also, they are usually the ones the kids go to first with questions about God, the Bible and life in general. This is why I believe every Christian mom should be a theologian.
When I say every Christian mom should be a theologian, I do not mean they have to go to seminary, what I mean is that every mom needs to spend lots of time in the scriptures studying, becoming well versed in it and know how to rightly apply it to everyday life. In order to be a godly wife and mom, her time in the word and prayer and listening to godly sermons is invaluable. No child grows up knowing instinctively the right way to behave, not even Christian kids. They have to be trained to know what is right, proper and godly.
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Some Christian families have taken this verse to mean that if you train up your child in a Christin home, teach them the Bible and take them to church, then they will definitely become saved as adults. This verse makes no such promise. This is not a verse about salvation, but about training in general. While the Lord sometimes works through families to save, it is not always the case. We have all heard or know of people were not raised in Christian homes but are faithfully serving the Lord today. Likewise, we also know God fearing parents who raised their children in a godly home, took them church every week whose children remain unsaved. Salvation is of the Lord.
How does one raise “godly offspring”?. Deuteronomy 6:3-7 spells it out for us.
Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
These verses call the parents to first love God with all their heart, soul and might, before they are able to teach the children. Christian mom, the Lord is calling you to love Him with all your heart, soul and might, then and only then, will you be able to teach the word of God to your kids. In other words, you cannot give what they do not have. How are we to love God? What does loving God look like? Jesus tells us in John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. You have to know the commandments, before you can keep them.
Christian mom, the Lord has graciously given us a manual for life – the Bible. Spend time in it. Study it. Believe it. Live it out. Teach it to your kids. No parent has the ability to save their child, salvation is of the Lord, however every parent has been equipped by God with all they need to teach their children what true godliness is.
May God’s grace be yours.
Quiet Time
Most Christians have heard the word “quiet time”. This is supposed to me a time, usually in the morning where you spend time alone in the word and prayer. The “quiet time” is sometimes referred to as your personal devotion time. I was surprised to learn that wikipedia had a definition for “quiet time”. Here it is:
Quiet time, also stated as heart-to-heart time, or one-on-one time with the creator, is a regular individual session of Christian spiritual activities, such as prayer, private meditation, contemplation, worship of God or study of the Bible. The term “quiet time” or “sacred time” is used by 20th-century Protestants, mostly evangelical Christians. It is also called “personal Bible study” or “personal devotions” . Interesting!
When I first got saved, I was taught that it was best to have a ‘quiet time’ preferably in the morning hours. The purpose of an early morning time alone with God was to help set / focus your mind on the word of God as you begin the day. However, I was not taught that I had to use a devotional, I was taught that “quiet time” was a time for Bible study (actually opening the Bible) and prayer. I will be forever grateful for that. As time went on, I began to notice a trend among Christians that stressed the need to use a devotional book (daily devotional) for your “quiet time”. Perhaps that was always the case, but it was new to me. The devotional usually has a Bible verse or two and then a short story or exhortation to help clarify the verse(s), & help with personal application. At the same time, I also began to hear that the amount of time spent in “quiet time” did not matter, that it could be as little as 5mins a day. The most important thing was that you were “doing your morning devotion” or “quiet time”.
Now I am not against using daily devotionals, I believe they can be very helpful, I sometimes use them myself from time to time. From experience, I can say nothing is as profitable to the believer as actually studying the Bible itself. I was also shocked at the idea of only spending 5mins day in Bible study. 5mins a day? Why would anyone think 5mins a day of Bible study is sufficient to make them spiritually mature over time? Some people try to make the argument that 5mins a day is better than nothing.
Nothing worthwhile takes 5mins a day to accomplish. No one becomes a doctor by studying for only 5mins a day. No one becomes a professional athlete by practicing 5mins day. No good mother invests only 5mins in caring for their child. It takes more than 5mins a day to put a nutritious meal on the table for your family.
Studying the Bible and praying for 5mins a day is not something a Christian should aspire to. I am convinced most Christians do not think this way about issues in other area of their lives. I don’t know of anyone who thinks, showing up to work, or school for only 5mins a day is better than not showing up at all. Nothing worthwhile takes 5mins a day to accomplish. No one becomes a doctor by studying for only 5mins a day. No one becomes a professional athlete by practicing 5mins day. No good mother invests only 5mins in caring for their child. It takes more than 5mins a day to put a nutritious meal on the table for your family. I sure hope you don’t attend a church where the Pastor only spends 5mins a day preparing his sermon! No one is ever going to mature as a Christian by studying their Bible for only 5mins a day.
I understand that for some people, there is just not enough time in the morning for deep Bible study and prayer for a variety of reasons, then I would advice they find a more appropriate time during the day. Your spiritual growth and life, your sanctification depends on a through knowledge of the Bible and time in prayer. It is not legalistic to stress a deeper study of the Word and prayer. We need to create order in our lives to make room for time alone with God in prayer. JC Ryle in his book “Practical Religion” said this about prayer:
I might say something of the value of regular times in the day for prayer. God is a God of order. The hours of the morning and evening sacrifice in the Jewish temple were not established as they were without a meaning. Disorder is notably one of the fruits of sin. But I would not bring anyone under bondage. I only say this, that it is essential to your soul’s health to make praying a part of the routine of every twenty-four hours in your life.
Just as you allot time to eating, sleeping, and business, so also allot time to prayer. Choose your own hours and periods. At the very least, speak with God in the morning, before you speak with the world; and speak with God at night, after you have finished with the world for that day. But settle it in your minds that prayer is one of the vital things of each day. Do not put it into a corner. Do not give it the scraps, and leftover minutes of your day. Whatever else you make a business of, make a business of prayer.” (emphasis mine)
Becoming a woman of prayer and a student of the Bible will demand some investment of time as well as some discipline, there is no way around it. The apostle Paul constantly compared the discipline our Christian life demands to that of an athlete. In 1Cor. 9:24-27 he compared our spiritual journey to that of an athlete running to win. For that to happen, the athlete must discipline himself. He said:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (emphasis mine)
All growth, including spiritual growth takes time, discipline and effort. Some people seem to think that when it comes to spiritual matters, the Holy Spirit will somehow supernaturally just make up for what we lack. While the Holy Spirit has been given to assist us in knowing more about the Lord, He is only able to do so with what we have already studied from the word. The Holy Spirit enlightens our hearts as we study. When there is nothing there, there will be nothing for Him to enlighten. Becoming spiritually mature takes a lot of discipline that will involve taking the time to spend lots of time in the word of God. In the end, it will be worth it.