Content or Contentious?

     Which are you?  Which would those close to you say that you are?  Are you content with who you are, what you have, what decisions have been made, what your life is like or do you find yourself unhappy in these areas?  What is the one indicator that others will use to decipher our attitude?  Our tongue!!!  Let me share a few Scripture verses that can guide us in our use of our tongue, so that when others hear us they will know that we are content.

     Let’s keep I Timothy 6:6 and 8 in the forefront of our memory throughout this discussion.  They say, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain” and “Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”  There is great gain for the individual who strives for godliness and accompanies that with a happy attitude.  Now, how do we demonstrate this attitude with our tongue?  I Corinthians 14 would be a good place to look.  Throughout the chapter, Paul is discussing the use of tongues and all throughout the section he mentions that it should be used for edification.(vs. 3, 5, 12, and 26)  Edification means to uplift or encourage.  We must use our tongue to find the good in people, situations and life and not the bad.  Hebrews 3:13 and 10:25 both speak to the idea of exhorting one another one a continual basis, encouraging them with our tongue.  

     When you have been sincerely encouraged by someone, what is the effect?  Do you feel more united or divided?  See, God desires for us to be content and for us to demonstrate this contentment by building others up to create unity among brethren.  This unity cannot develop if we spend our time looking at the negative, putting others down in the process.  Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”  So, let me encourage you to spend your days finding the good in others and in life.  Focus on the blessings of God and talk of it often.  Let your wife know she’s wonderful, or that you appreciate your husband.  Believe me, the results will be wonderful.

     Let me close with a few more verses that encourage us to build others up.  Romans 14:19 says, “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.”  I Thessalonians 5:11 says, “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

     May we continually demonstrate our content attitude by uplifting others by the expressions of our mouth.

     “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  I Thessalonians 5:23