Inductive Bible Study Posts

One of the incredible tools God has blessed me with through my time in the Ignite program is Learning the Inductive Bible study method. So I will be posting each week's daily IBS devotionals. I hope these will bless all those who read them.

Week 5

1^st Tim. 6:6-8

But godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and we cannot take anything out of this world. But if we have food and clothing with these we will be content.

Godliness is a battle in every believer’s life because our flesh constantly wanting more and more (i.e. sin) this verse 6 show the same thing to us: How our flesh is constantly going to want more and more comforts. When godliness and contentment are combined when pursuing the Lord we experience great fulfillment. I have personally struggled with godliness in my own life and between lust and lying I have plenty of sin piled up in my own life. But at the times in my life when I am not struggling with sin and I am not content with the things the lord is blessing me with; in those times I feel that I am not able to grow because I am walking with the lord but not thanking him for the things that he blesses me with. I need to be content with the thing the lord blesses me with. I need to be willing to surrender those things back to God so that I will experience true blessing from trusting him with everything. The best way that I will be able to trust him with everything is if I will ask him to strip away the things that are not drawing me closer towards him. I hope that I will be willing to hold things loosely, so that God will remove them and that I may even experience some suffering from losing those comforts. But in that discomfort and possible suffering I would be able to look more like Christ in my lifestyle.

Today I will spend ten minutes reflecting on the things that are not necessary in my life. And then spend ten minutes praying that God would remove those things and that I would surrender them to him.

Luke 3:14

Soldiers also asked him, “and we, what shall then we do?” and he said to them do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusations, and be content with your wages.

John the Baptist called the soldiers to abstain from the moral temptations that were plaguing men in their profession. The fact that this parallels so closely to many of Christ’s responses later in the Gospels, demonstrates that John the Baptist was walking so closely with the Spirit. Also, his statement is an example of how believers need to die to their selves and be content in what the Lord is doing for and in them. I all too often am dwelling on what others are thinking of me or what my spiritual image looks like rather than what Christ is doing directly in my own life. I need to fix my eyes on what Christ is doing in my life instead of what others are thinking of me. The soldiers may have been able to realize that their wages are enough for them to have comfortable lives, but more so than earthly comforts they would experience what the coming Christ will be able to do in their lives and the total sufficiency that he can be in their lives.

Application: I will spend ten minutes in prayer tomorrow morning asking for a fresh filling of the holy spirit that I might be able to speak truth into the lives of others, that will point them towards Christ as John the Baptist did to the tax collectors and soldiers in this passage.

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.

The bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil so in order for me to rid my life of evil I should not pursue a  high paying salary but search for the job and/career the lord would have for me. As we saw yesterday, I am to be content with my wages and never complain about not making enough money. But even further than this as a Christian I need to deny my fleshly sinful actions and be content with the gift of Christ. All too often I spit in the face of God by sinning merely because I want to put my desires over His whether that be by lusting or lying or any other sin, when I do these things I am putting my own wants above my Fathers and that is a demonstration of discontentment. So today as I go about my day when I sin; I will immediately repent of that sin and show my contentment towards Christ by thanking God in prayer for the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb!  

Philippians 4:11

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content.

Paul is writing this letter from a jail cell and he speaks of how the Lord is working through him and how thankful he is. I don’t think there has ever been a full day where I was totally satisfied in who Christ. Don’t get me wrong there have been plenty of moments where right after a worship service I feel like I won’t ever need another thing in life then on the ride home I am complaining about what restaurant we are going to eat at? Or wish that my mom would cook another food that I would like better. I’m so incredibly blessed to have a mom who would cook me an amazing meal like this, not to mention that the meal cost as much as most of the world makes in a week. And even the kitchen that the food is prepared in is larger than most of the houses that a lot of people will ever own. I need to find contentment in all of these things.

As Paul was able to in jail, I need to find my satisfaction in God. So today I am going to try not to complain about anything weather that be the vegan diet I’m on or the mosquitoes. And If I do complain about anything then I will either remove or double that activity in my life. Also I will pray as I have the urge to complain tomorrow and thank god for all the positive aspects of that activity.