Teachable spirit

I asked a man what changed for him and he said, “I just began to be grateful to God for what I did have in my life and I stopped focusing on that 5 percent of what I didn’t have.” He said, “Every time my emotions would begin to get all upset, I’d go off and sit down somewhere and take a piece of paper out and write down the things I was grateful about and begin to thank God for them.”

He said, “As I did that my emotions began to change,” and when your emotions begin to change, you know what you do? You begin to treat people differently, and when you begin to treat people differently, that 5 percent begins to shrink and shrink, says Richard Jordan.

Listen, people begin to change in relationship to the change in you. You can’t change other people.

What are the issues in your life where you’re constantly focusing on the negative instead of rejoicing and thanking God for what you do have? Those big issues today?

If you want to have contentment and have it be well with your soul, cultivate being grateful. You say, “But in my circumstances it’s not there.” I didn’t say anything about your circumstances; be grateful for who God has made you in Christ and you’ll find you’re equipped to live in whatever “up” or “down” it is.

Contentment, that deep inner sense of satisfaction with who you are, isn’t tied to the variables.

Paul said, “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” It’s an attitude that you learn. Contentment’s not a thing that you achieve; it’s not a thing that you acquire. It’s something that you learn; it’s an attitude. Paul says, “In all things I’m instructed.”

It’s something that you take in some information from God’s Word; it’s not an external thing; it’s an internal adjustment to some truth from God’s Word.

Paul said it in Romans 12: [2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

There’s a new way to think. We’re not thinking like the Epicureans or the Stoics; we’re not getting our instructions about how to deal with life off the TV or out of religion, or out of our flesh. We’re getting it out of God’s Word and the reality in His Word is that no matter where I am at or what’s going on, I am sufficient for all things in Jesus Christ.

By the way, the culture says contentment is some future event “and when it gets here I’ll be happy.” It’s like Lotto living. “When that ticket shows up, then I’ll be happy.” Forget it; it isn’t tied to those things.

The key is you need to be teachable to learn. The key to learning things is to have a teachable spirit, so that when you’re in the circumstances, and they’re calling attention to the things going on around you, you need to ask God, “What do I need to learn in these present circumstances?” instead of telling God what you want Him to change in them.