Q: I came to your “Busting the Boyfriend-less Blues” seminar at Hume Lake, but I didn’t have a pen. Could you post the verses you used–especially that one you paraphrased at the end? Thanks!
Absolutely! I’m so glad you were able to come and I hope the entire week was a great time for you to get away from the distractions of home and hear God speak to your heart.
Here are the verses (and some extras) I used in the seminar:
Contentment = “Not settling for less than you deserve just to get what you want.”
Romans 5:3-5
“We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.”
Charles Spurgeon on Contentment:
“…Contentment in all states is not a natural propensity of man. Ill weeds grow apace; covetousness, discontent and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. You have no need to sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough because they are indigenous to earth upon which rests the curse…. If we want flowers there must be the garden and all the gardener’s care. Now contentment is one of the flowers of heaven and if we would have it it must be cultivated. It will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in it.”
Philippians 4:11
“Not that I was ever in need for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation whether it is with a full stomach or empty with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.”
Romans 12:2
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Philippians 4:8
“Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
1 Timothy 6:6
“True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.”
2 Corinthians 9:8
“And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”
Isaiah 26:8 (The Message)
“We’re in no hurry God. We’re content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you’ve done are all we’ll ever want.”
My paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 7:29-38:
“But let me say this my dear sisters: The time we have on this earth is so short and we never know when Christ may return. So from now on those who are lonely should not be absorbed by their loneliness or tears. And those with boyfriends should not focus only on their relationships or become too attached to them because everything in this life–except God–is temporary.
I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. A girl without a boyfriend can spend her time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please Him. But a girlfriend is always preoccupied with earthly things, like how to how to please her boyfriend. Her interests are divided.
Having a boyfriend is not a sin. But if a girl feels God is asking her not to date, that’s even better. So the girl who has a boyfriend does well and the girl who doesn’t have a boyfriend does even better.
I share all this for your good, because I love you, not because I’m some spinster who wants to pooh-pooh your parade. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best with as few distractions as possible.”
Praying for you, sis, as you run hard after contentment!
Love,
PS- All verses are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.
