Four-Cees

             For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.  His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,  according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. (Ephesians 3:1-13)

I generally try to avoid commenting on the sermons at church, not because I disagree or agree with them, but because I don’t want to simply rehash what was just hashed. However, yesterday’s sermon resonated with something Dallas Willard taught, which I think may be useful. The passage above was the text, and it should be noted that my church is facing a challenge.

Pastor Chen said that “Grace draws you out of comfort, into confidence, into great contentment. What Dallas Willard said (generalized) is that one often cannot gain what one wants by a direct approach. One example he gives is that one does not stop thinking about elephants by saying (repeatedly) “I will not think about elephants.” One stops thinking about elephants by thinking about something else.

Similarly, one does not gain confidence or contentment by seeking confidence or contentment. They are byproducts of a process. One doesn’t become faithful or loving by focusing on whether or not one is being faithful or loving. We may want to be confident in our confidence and content in our contentedness. And, we may want to have faith in our faithfulness, and we be in love with the idea of being loving. If we are not careful, pursuing confidence, contentment, faith, or love can lead to idolizing them rather than worshipping God.

But Pastor Chen was right. To gain confidence, we need to step out of our comfort zone. To gain contentment, we do need to move beyond confidence and even beyond competence (which often follows rather than precedes confidence and even contentment.) All three depend upon our focus being on a goal that is not confidence, competence, or contentedness. You gain all three by focusing on the thing you want to be confident, competent, or contented with or in.