The PROBLEM is that our Flesh, our carnal Adamic nature is not willing to let God be the Provider. The Flesh doesn't want to trust and depend on God; on the contrary it strives to exalt itself and rely on its own power and abilities. According to the Flesh, God's way of providing takes too long, is never enough, is different than what it should be, is always late, etc. Although the Word of God says clearly and repeatedly that the Lord has a perfect plan of provision, the Flesh resists the Word and prefers its own alternative plans of provision that can be executed in the natural and monitored with the five physical senses.

The Bible says that a Believer's FLESH always sets itself in opposition to the desires of the SPIRIT (Galatians 5:17) which forces us to deal with a repetitive choice as we go through life: to walk by the Flesh or by the Spirit. Making the right choice is important because if we set our minds on the things of the Flesh, the Bible says the result will ALWAYS be "death" because the Flesh is hostile toward God; but the mind that is set on the Spirit will produce life and peace (Romans 8:6-7). The truth is, born again Believers have every opportunity to be led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14) and make the correct choices. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is ALWAYS at work to ALWAYS lead us in the direction of the Kingdom of God which will ALWAYS turn out to be what's best for us. But being Spirit-led requires that we learn to recognize and then override the influence of our Flesh. Even the Apostle Paul said that his Flesh caused him to do things (i.e. make choices) he didn't want to do (Romans 7:15-16). So it's likely that if the Apostle Paul had an occasional Flesh problem, most of us are likely to have a similar problem and perhaps even more so where our provision is concerned because that's where our TREASURE tends to be (Matthew 6:21).

Another way to describe this PROBLEM is that Believers tend generally to be DISCONTENT with the manner and amount of God's provision. In our DISCONTENT we forget who the real OWNER is and begin trying to help God with the job of providing. Perhaps we look for ways to work harder and make more money, or we turn to indebtedness, or we use deception and manipulation, or we take advantage of others, or we decrease giving, or we commit any number of other carnal acts with the hope of increasing our provision by using our own strength. But with any of these flesh-driven strategies, the result is always the same: we wind up losing our joy and peace because of pressure and stress and we don't ever achieve the increased provision we had hoped to generate. Friend, it's DISCONTENT that causes us to make the wrong choices.

Now, a basic principle of life in the Kingdom of God is that whenever we strive to accomplish something in the FLESH, the Lord suspends what He was going to do BY THE SPIRIT until we become frustrated with trying to do things ourselves and turn back to Him for assistance. What we try to do in the Flesh will NEVER produce the results we had hoped for and eventually we'll give up. And anyway, whatever lowly results we actually DO achieve ourselves will never come close to the results that would've been achieved had we trusted God and left the matter of provision to Him. In the end we wind up having invested a lot of time and effort trying to overcome our problems in our own strength only to come back to about the same place we started from without too much to show for it and now ready for God to take over and implement the plan of provision He was about to give us in the beginning.

And so a principal challenge for Believers, particularly in the financial area, is to focus on being CONTENT with God's provision, even when it doesn't reach the level of our expectations. It's not easy to maintain CONTENTEDNESS but we're instructed in Luke 3:14 to be CONTENT with our wages (provision) and we're told in Timothy 6:8 that once God has provided for our food and raiment (clothing), we should be CONTENT. We're not requested to be CONTENT; we're commanded to trust God and be CONTENT. If He commands us to do something, we have the ability to comply with His commandment, even though it might be difficult, or He wouldn't have commanded it. God would never command us to do something if obedience were not possible. Therefore, CONTENTEDNESS is something important for the Christian to seriously pursue and it's something we do by FAITH and by the SPIRIT.

Many Christians are overlooking that CONTENTEDNESS is an important character-development objective of the Holy Spirit. The truth is many Believers are frequently DISCONTENT with what God is doing in their lives and with their various tribulations and persecutions. Generally we don't give our DISCONTENT much thought. The fact that we're DISCONTENT is not as important as changing the circumstance that we think is causing it. But our DISCONTENT is by far the more important issue; the circumstance is temporary and God will remove it as soon as we move out of the way and allow Him to do His work. Friend, the truth is the Holy Spirit wants us to deal with our DISCONTENT because it's a basic hindrance to our spiritual growth and development.

Consider for a moment that DISCONTENT ALWAYS leads us into the Flesh. As we already learned, when we're operating in the Flesh, God suspends His plans and steps aside so we can be perfectly free to take over. Once we take over we're no longer eligible to receive God's best for our lives in the particular area that we're trying to control. Without God's best we're unable to enjoy victory and the peace that passes all understanding. So DISCONTENT blocks the manifestation of God's favor and blessing in the life of a Believer.

Secondly, we need to consider that one of the roots of our DISCONTENT is a lack of trust in the Lord. Do we really believe that the Word of God is true? Do we really believe that God will actually do everything He has promised to do? Do we really believe that He will protect us and cause all things to work for our good? When it comes to our provision, we're much less likely to trust God than with other things in life. If we can't trust God and His Word then we lose our faith. Therefore, DISCONTENT causes us to lose our faith and without faith it's impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Without faith we become dull and unable to sense the leading of the Holy Spirit. In sum, DISCONTENT is a dangerous challenge to the faith-walk of a Believer.

Thirdly, we need to consider that another of the roots of our DISCONTENT is COVETOUSNESS. To be COVETOUS means to have envious desires for the possessions of others or for the acquisition of material things as a validation of self worth. It means to lust after a particular thing (or person) we don't yet have. COVETOUSNESS is a serious offense against God and violates one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:17). It causes us to circumvent God's plan of provision by going into debt; it causes us to seek after the accumulation of material possessions; it leads many to dishonesty. COVETOUSNESS is a dangerous trap that the enemy tries to lead us into and it ALWAYS starts with DISCONTENT.

The biblical use of the word COVETOUSNESS is synonymous with AVARICE which also means THE LOVE OF MONEY which in turn is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). AVARICE also means IDOLATRY. Therefore, COVETOUSNESS is itself the root of all evil and is IDOLATRY (Colossians 3:5) which means that if you don't resist and control COVETOUSNESS, things and possessions will eventually become more important to you than God. Fortunately though we can protect ourselves from COVETOUSNESS by being CONTENT (Hebrews 13:5). If we're CONTENT with what we have, we will not permit the Flesh to lead us into the lust for things and possessions God prefers for us not to have.

Fourthly, it's important to consider that God has given Believers the power to obtain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) and that He takes pleasure in the prosperity of those who serve Him (Psalm 35:27). But the purpose of that prosperity is NOT for us to consume it all on ourselves. Rather, it's to accomplish the purposes of God which are mainly to establish His Kingdom on the earth (Deuteronomy 8:18) and to bless others (2 Corinthians 9:8). Covetousness always interferes with the fulfillment of those objectives because it leads us to use God's provision to satisfy our own lusts. Since covetousness comes from DISCONTENT, He can't trust DISCONTENTED Believers with as much prosperity as some others who are more CONTENT. And so, there's a close relationship between being CONTENT with God's provision and the manifestation of economic prosperity in one's life. If you've been less than prosperous in your life, you may want to examine your past level of CONTENTMENT with God's provision. CONTENTMENT with where you are now leads to greater blessing and prosperity for where you will be in the future.

In sum, CONTENTEDNESS is much more important for Believers than most of us have considered. The victorious Christian should be a CONTENTED person no matter what's happening in their natural environment. And out of that strengthened and maturing CONTENTEDNESS, we will eventually come to where we can consistently place God first in our lives and begin to receive the abundance Jesus won for us at the Cross. Developing CONTENTEDNESS must be a key goal for the Christian who seriously desires God's best. Friend, it won't work any other way.

But CONTENTEDNESS doesn't come easy. Since DISCONTENT flows out of the Flesh the enemy is constantly working to stir it up. Take a look at the World around you, which is largely grounded in greed and materialism, and you'll see advanced COVETOUSNESS in action. For example, the objective of most major media advertising is covetousness, i.e., the creation of a demand for something we don't yet possess by convincing us we can no longer live without whatever is being advertised. In other words, the purpose of most advertising is to diminish CONTENTMENT with our present status so we'll be stimulated to purchase something. The truth is watching too many TV ads can lead a mature Christian into COVETOUSNESS so be careful.

Actually, we have to LEARN how not to be COVETOUS especially since we're in close proximity to so much temptation so we can come to a point in our lives where CONTENTEDNESS rules. Even the Apostle Paul had to "learn" how to be CONTENT (Philippians 4:11-13): It didn't come naturally, it didn't come without difficulty, without sacrifice; and it didn't come without first understanding that DISCONTENT is undesirable. And like Paul we have to LEARN to be CONTENT whether we are in humble means or prosperity, in whatever condition we find ourselves at any particular point in time. We choose to be CONTENT rather than focusing on changing our circumstances.

" I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me"

Another question for today is: HOW do we learn to be CONTENT like Paul did? We start by acknowledging that CONTENTEDNESS is more important for us than we used to believe or than the circumstances we face. Then we yield to the work of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to build CONTENTMENT in us however He wants to. We're determined not to fall into DISCONTENT keeping in mind that CONTENTMENT is a choice we make. We don't have to be DISCONTENT; it's not an uncontrollable emotion. No matter what happens, we can choose to be CONTENT with God's provision believing by faith that He is ordering our steps and that He knows what's best for us. By submitting to the authority of God and His Word in the area of provision, we will come to learn CONTENTMENT and we'll be able to stand mighty against dissatisfaction and covetousness and the power of the Flesh.

Another thing we need to learn is coming to the realization, the conviction, that God is not the cause of our tribulations. Many Christians believe they're facing negative trials in their lives because God "allowed" those things to attack. Friend, this is a traditional theology that is not consistent with the Word of God. Actually the Lord gave us free will to choose and He doesn't use the Curse or IMPOSE anything else on us to teach things; no, the Bible says He uses the Holy Spirit to teach us ALL things (John 14:26). Rather than "allowing" negative circumstances to come into your life, the Holy Spirit is trying to warn you ahead of time to make better choices. In other words, most of our tribulations are the result of our wrong choices and we need to take responsibility for them instead of blaming God. The truth is He prefers that you be led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14) so that your choices produce life and peace (Romans 8:6-7) instead of death and DISCONTENT. If we can come to this realization, if we can stop blaming our good God for our own mistakes, we will go a long way toward resolving our problems with DISCONTENT.

Another source of DISCONTENT often involves the PERSECUTION of our enemy, Satan. The Bible says that persecutions come on us for the Word's sake (Matthew 13:21, Mark 4:17). In other words, the enemy persecutes us just because we're Christians and believe that the Word is true. The more you believe in the authority of the Word of God, the more persecution you can expect from Satan and from the World he controls. As soon as you decide to take a stand on a promise from the Word, you can expect persecution to promptly ensue. Scripture substantiates that the godly in Christ will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12) so we should endure persecution not with DISCONTENT but with a sense of fulfillment, with CONTENTEDNESS, trusting God to bring us through and out of it in due course. In the meantime our assignment is to take authority over the enemy in the name of Jesus. We don't grow faint in the face of persecution; we release our faith for deliverance and victory. We overcome persecution by the name and authority of Christ. Yes, God DOES allow persecution to affect us but He has given us total authority over the enemy that will bring an end to every persecution. That's the life of a Christian; that's the trade-off for eternal life and the gift of peace. Friend, we have to LEARN how to do this because it certainly doesn't come naturally. But it can be done and it starts with understanding where persecution comes from so we can direct both our blame and our authority against the enemy instead of God. In doing this you will convert DISCONTENT with God to RIGHTEOUS RESISTANCE against the enemy and in that process you become an OVERCOMER.

God wants so very much to be your Provider today, for you to trust Him and be CONTENT with what He's trying to do in your life. Although being CONTENT is a decision we make, it's not easy and the Holy Spirit has to help us continually to make the right decisions and choices. But we can definitely learn to be CONTENT and we can learn more quickly by acknowledging the importance of CONTENTEDNESS and then opening our hearts and minds to receive His instruction.

Being CONTENT to allow God to be our Provider instead of resorting to our own strength requires faith and patience. It requires a willingness to wait until God is ready. It requires a determination to be CONTENTED even when our natural man is offended by God's seeming inaction. It requires that we take responsibility for the tests and trials that were mostly our fault and that we trust in God to get us through them. It requires understanding that our love for God and His Word will bring us persecution and that it has nothing to do with our own unrighteousness that Jesus already paid for in full. It requires our willingness to rest in God when our flesh wants to run out and take matters into its own hands. It requires a determination and a commitment to pursue God's best for our lives and an unwillingness to settle for anything less.

The next time you feel like getting agitated over some financial problem, stop for a moment, take a deep breath and CHOOSE to be at rest. Adopt the attitude that you might as well try to rest because God is ordering your steps and that there's nothing you can do yourself to bring about a quality solution to your problem anyway. Just slow down, come into His rest and try to LEARN what He wants to show you. Stop struggling against God, stop yielding to your Flesh and then discipline yourself to wait until He moves on your behalf.

May the Lord bless you and your family as you pursue CONTENTEDNESS and as you continue to prepare yourself for the abundant life He has for you. Thank you for reading PLN today and we'll be looking for you again in three weeks on March 21.

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