Contentment

Contentment is a hard thing to grasp. I know for me, at least, living in the ever-changing world with the pressures and goals trying to meet in our society, contentment is something almost impossible to wrap my head around. There is always something you could do better, somewhere better you could go, or something cooler or fancier you could own. It is just the world we live in, and it is a sin God knew we would struggle with. For the past 30 days I have been diving deeper into what contentment really looks like through the devotional book called “Contentment… Seeing God’s Goodness” by Megan Hill (I will link the book at the bottom). What I first learned, is that our discontent is a way of rebellion against God and it is us accusing him of doing wrong. When we become discontent, we are fooling ourselves into believing that God has not satisfied us or given us everything we need. If we believe God has acted wrongly, then we will not be able to serve and love him as he has called us to do. Not only this, but discontent leads us to other sins such as selfishness, anger, and pettiness. The fact is this: The Lord in himself is all we could ever need, so, what more could the Lord possibly give us? After all, he died on the cross to pay for our sins. Riches will always be an unreliable hope that will never fulfill, however, we can always rest in the hope of the Lord’s care. In no way, however, is the Lord looking down on us in shame for struggling to feel content. He knows the struggles we face, and he knows the long journey to feeling completely 100% satisfied. Through all changing circumstances, he will continue to expand his love towards us in ways we could never imagine. Because of this, through every circumstance, we have the choice and power to decide how we want to view our challenges. Rather than succumbing to fear and discontent, we have the capability to rejoice in the truth that every challenge has a purpose and that every occurrence is designed to make us more like christ. Along with circumstances, our desires oftentimes stray us away from seeking contentment to its fullest. Pursuing contentment does NOT require us to avoid desire completely. Instead, we must work towards aligning our desires to God’s, rather than our own. We must seek first the kingdom of God and our desires will then fall into place accordingly. We can rest on these two truths: God knows exactly what we need, and God has the power to satisfy every desire. Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” God’s desires> personal desires. Lastly, we must not be conformed to ignorance and lack of knowledge, because falling into this trap we will not be able to reach one of the most important desires: living a life of holiness and knowledge to expand to others to reach his kingdom. In him, we will truly find contentment. Instead of “I would be satisfied if only…” , we must work to accept that “I am satisfied because I have all I need, which I truly believe because God has a plan and purpose for everything and he will satisfy all my desires”. In no way, is contentment going to be reached the second you decide to feel content. Feelings change, the world continues moving at 100 miles per hour, and challenges arise daily. But through all of this, we can rest in a safe place: the Lord. He will continue to hold our hand as we struggle, and from this truth we can truly be satisfied in knowing that the Lord’s desires are what we really NEED, and everything has a purpose. After finishing this 31 day devotional, I encourage you, too, to dig deep into the Lord’s words, and each day say a prayer to help your desires fall into place of God’s, and remember that we have the power to look at the circumstance from a positive outlook, which will bring us eternal peace and happiness! WOOHOO!

Thanks for reading this LONG post! Over the past 2 weeks I have truly been trying to strengthen not only my outlook on everything that is going on, but giving thanks to God because I know there is a plan behind it all! God truly is amazing!

link to the devotional: https://www.amazon.com/Contentment-Seeing-Goodness-31-Day-Devotionals/dp/1629954888/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=31+day+contentment&qid=1596045909&sr=8-2

XO,

Frances

Thedailydoseofjesus!