A Treasure Worth Guarding
Everyone who ministers, whether as a vocation or as a volunteer, is commanded to “guard what has been entrusted” (1 Timothy 6:20); it’s an essential part of ministry.
Everyone who ministers, whether as a vocation or as a volunteer, is commanded to “guard what has been entrusted” (1 Timothy 6:20); it’s an essential part of ministry.
Our culture doesn’t exactly inspire contentment—everything around us is designed to promote dissatisfaction, comparison, envy, and competition. But you can stop this disappointment cycle by being thankful. When you count your blessings your worry shifts to gratitude, and you begin enjoying all God has given you.
While money and wealth are not evil, the love of money leads to emptiness and disaster because you’ll always strive for more.
As leaders we are tempted to see the objective in front of us—of all we must get done. Wise leaders remember objectives can’t be the single drive of our lives; we must build into those who will someday be in leadership.
A good way to think about contentment is Christ-sufficiency, not self-sufficiency.
Living in a material world, and especially in capitalistic North America, the pressure to be caught up in materialism is enormous.
Contentment comes through choices we make. The Apostle Paul said he had learned how to be content (Philippians 4:11–13). Following Paul’s teaching and example can help us learn how to be content.
Becoming a faithful and generous follower of Christ does not depend on our accumulation of money as much as it does on our attitude toward money. (Pause and reread that statement.) As we will discover in this lesson, the less we depend on material things to make us happy, the more likely we are to model generosity.
None can deny that money plays an enormous role in all our lives…even when we keep our perspective and steer clear of greed.
When you hear something nearly true, or partly true, it’s easy to accept it as true. That’s the thing about deception: sometimes it’s hard to spot, as small as uneasiness or something not sitting quite right.