Speaker: Rusty Gerhart

Theme: The Hurried Life

Weekend Music links on iTunes: All Because of Jesus - Fee, Run - Hillsong, For Who You Are - Hillsong, Forever Reign - Hillsong

Read: Matthew 6:22-23; Proverbs 14:30; Ecclesiastes 5:10-11

Think:   What makes for a life of contentment? Perhaps cultivating the practice of finding joy.

I remember encountering a man who really was happy most of the time. This person laughed easily, smiled often and was continually quick to give thanks to God and acknowledge other people in positive ways. It was a mystery to me how he could be so “up” so much of the time. I thought it must just be his personality, something he was born with.

One day as we were talking, I got a clue. He talked about how as a little boy he had had come down with polio. In his words he described it as “the best thing that ever happened to him”. Again, knowing what I do about the effects of polio, this seemed perhaps either a far stretch or veiled sarcasm. As I found, it was neither. In having a disabling disease that left him often unable to move about and enjoy a normal childhood, he had found spiritual compensation that far outdistanced his troubles. Later, I realized he had discovered the truth of what the Apostle Paul describes in Philippians 4:11-13:

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

And that is where the “secret” of this man’s joy became clearer to me. Polio had been the instrument in his life that God had allowed to help him learn contentedness regardless of his circumstances. He had used the opportunity of living with the effects of the disease to learn to rely on the Lord, to turn to Him in prayer and thanksgiving for his loving care, and to invite God’s strength to fill him.

How we see and interpret circumstances in our lives is often what makes the difference in how we experience them. From today’s reading from Matthew 6 we hear Jesus teach “the eye is the lamp of the body”, and an eye filled with jealousy and desire for what we do not have makes us ungrateful. And that is the death of joy.

Do:   Reflect on what circumstance or situation God has allowed into your life to help you learn more fully how to be content. 

Pray:   Jesus, help me to learn to practice being at peace, to learn to be content no matter what is happening in my life. Help strengthen me and renew my outlook and free me from jealous thoughts or cravings that only serve to weaken me spiritually. Help me to let every trouble I face bring me closer to you. Amen.