Masters of Contentment
… for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content
Philippians 4:12
SERPENTS ARE WISE BECAUSE THEY ARE CONTENT WITH VERY LITTLE
Today, most of us do not live with the wisdom of the serpent who is content with very little. When I saw a snake in the sands of the desert, I wondered what the snake would eat and how it would be able to survive in the Sahara Desert. Amazingly, the serpent is able to stay in the dry arid Sahara desert as well as in the cold icy snow of the Artic Circle. The first question that comes to mind is ‘What food will the snake eat?’
Some snakes can eat once a year or once every few months. How many of us can do that? Not having to eat very often is one of the keys to the success of snakes everywhere.
Snakes are masters of contentment because with very little, they are able to live for many years. They eat once a while. Snakes don’t have to eat often and need a twentieth of the food of warm-blooded mammals their size. Because they have a slow metabolic rate, they can survive without eating for many days at a stretch. After a big meal, a king cobra can survive for many months without food.
When a minister of the gospel has the wisdom of a serpent, he will be able to live without needing many things. Like snakes, ministers must not need many things for the ministry to do well.
If you are wise as a serpent, you will not need to have an air-conditioned house, a special car, a special house, a special office, etc., in order to work for the Lord.
Do not be deceived into thinking that the world has been reached with the gospel. Television ministry is not a substitute for a real pastor who lives in the village where the people need him. But where are the pastors who will go to the towns, the villages and the highways? The people who would have gone on these missions are prosperity-seeking members of large churches all over the world. To send such people, you would need to provide a certain kind of house, electricity, generators, special jeeps, special communication gadgets, a personal air ambulance service, emergency stand-by doctors, international schools for their children, and the list goes on.
The serpent, however, does not need all these things to survive. It actually needs very little to stay alive and to persist in that environment. Today, there are many countries that do not have electricity and water at all. Some of these places are in great need of pastors and evangelists. Who will go there? Only those with the wisdom of the serpent! Only those with the wisdom of contentment!
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