Content, Authentic and Unashamed — September 17, 2013

Everyday we should strive to be content, authentic, and unashamed of who we are in Christ.

Contentment: 

Since we are human and have the flesh, it is NOT an easy thing to do apart from Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:10 says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

In this passage, Paul was going through a hard time. He pleaded with the Lord to remove this struggle from His life, but the Lord revealed to him that God's power is made perfect in his weakness.

What we have to realize as Christians, is sometimes God puts hard situations in our lives to help us GROW -- make us RELY on Him -- and STRENGTHEN our faith in Him.  So instead of asking God to remove us from the hard situation, our prayer should be, "Lord give me the strength to get through it." 

If we are truly content, we should count weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamites as blessings, because in the end we will be stronger. AND it allows us to give ALL the glory to the one who brought us through it — God.  

1 Timothy 6: Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 

Earlier in the passage Paul even says, if anyone teaches a different doctrine than this and doesn’t agree with these words, then he’s puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. As followers of Christ, this is NOT who we want to be. We want to be holy, because God calls us to be holy -- 1 Peter 1: 16: “Since it is written, “you shall be holy for I am holy.”

We were born into this world naked -- with nothing. If it weren’t for the family God placed us in, there’s no telling who we would be.

Paul says there is great gain in godliness with contentment.  So we need to be content with what we have. We need to flee from what the world tells us we need, because God’s word tells us what we need. “But if we have food and clothing, with these things we will content.”

Authenticity: 

Being authentic in today’s culture is hard. Merriam-Webster Dictionary says, to be authentic means "to be real or genuine, not copied or false." Applying authenticity to our lives just means to be ourselves – being who God created us to be.

Sometimes, we get caught up in the world’s opinion of how our lives should look. In the world, there are very strict guidelines as to what is acceptable and what is not, but God's word doesn't agree with the world. 

David the psalmist writes, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. - Psalm 139: 14-16

You are wonderfully made for God’s great purpose. Our every day was written out before the beginning of time. How comforting? You have a purpose, and God has a plan for YOUR life. Be real. Be yourself. Be authentic. 

If we are not living out who God created us to be, we are not only affecting our relationship with God, but also everyone around us. 

God blessed us with gifts so that they could be used in the Body of Christ, His Church. When we are trying to be someone else, those gifts are not HIGHLIGHTED. They are wasted away, taken by the world.

Romans 12: 6-7 says, “ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching.”

When we are walking in the footsteps of the Lord, and asking Him to lead our every step, our hearts will desire to be authentic. All Christians have one thing in common - Jesus Christ is our Lord. But each of us are called to be individually different so that He can use our gifts for His purposes and His glory. 

I challenge you search your heart and ask yourself, “Am I being authentic?” “Am I walking in the footsteps the Lord has prepared for me?” Ask the Lord to give you the strength to be authentic each and every day. 

Unashamed of Who We are in Christ: 
Sometimes I feel embarrassed, or in other words, ashamed when I share the Gospel to non- believers. Essentially what I'm doing is not trusting in God's great power to use my body as a vessel to share the gospel to others. — Uhhh. Gross. I rebuke sin. 

Romans 1:21 says, "For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." 

As Christians, we know who God is and what He did for us. It is our sinful nature and our flesh that desire to be loved by the world -- to conform. So, when the time comes for us to share the Gospel, we become ashamed. The Lord commands His people to be different. 

Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 1:16 tells us what we MUST do as followers of Christ:

Romans 1:16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

As Christians, we MUST not be ashamed of the Gospel. We MUST not be ashamed of who we are in Christ. We MUST share the good news! We MUST trust in The Lord to make us BOLD and give us the strength to be unashamed of who we are in Him. 

Everyday we should strive to be content, authentic and unashamed of who we are in Christ Jesus.