I trust I am not alone as a Convictional Evangelical who loves Jesus Christ yet is forever plagued with their lack of godly contentment.
As long as the Lord tarries His coming, every Christ-follower will forever struggle against the Devil, the world, and their chief adversary: self.
The maturing Evangelical readily understands the Devil and the world are mere influences; they possess no inherent power. The Bible enjoins the careful reader that sin always begins in the deep recesses of our hearts. James, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reveals,
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
All one needs is to return to the Garden to see how sin began; it began with the first wayward glance. The first recorded moment of discontentment tragically takes place. Prior to this first discontentment, Adam and Eve were naked as jay birds without a care in the world, enjoying God in the cool of the day.
The Devil, as the New Testament reveals, lurks as a lion (1 Peter 5:8), keenly observing for our first sign of discontent. Moses wrote in the Book of Genesis how Eve looked at the fruit and, in a moment, became dissatisfied with God, as if God was holding out on some necessary good thing, and it was on like donkey-kong from that point forward.
We sin not because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. We sin because that is the morally pathetic condition we entered into this world. All of Adam’s progeny is born with Original Sin, and our only hope of divine rescue from this eternal plight is the meritorious work of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Writ writes that walking in obedience as a dutiful slave of Jesus Christ is never a passive engagement where we let go and let God. I pray that is never the preaching and teaching of any Christ-follower.
Instead, the genuine Evangelical life is filled with active, albeit imperfect, striving after the things of God. We legitimately hate this world, although we so easily fall prey to her devices time and time again.
But this is a fight where the Evangelical never gives up and throws in the towel. When we fall, and fall, we will most certainly do, but because of Jesus Christ’s victorious resurrection, we are never utterly cast down (Psalm 37:24).
You and I are wretched sinners who are so prone to wander off the proven path. As Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
I pray you, and I will not grow weary in well doing. If we faint not, we will reap a grand reward. We will not succeed with passivity; we must actively engage ourselves in the battle with the full armor of God (Ephesians 6).
There is a war raging, and the front line is within our very soul. The enemy lurks, and that enemy is YOU & ME for myself.
Let us join our Brother Paul and strive to learn to be content!
Thanks to God the Father for sending His Son! Thanks to God the Son for humbling Himself to take on flesh! Thanks to God the Holy Spirit for overpowering the womb of Mary.
As usual, let me know what you think. Until keep your hands to the plow and seek to serve for an Audience of One.
With fear and trembling,
Ricky Verndale Kyles Sr. DEd.Min
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