You
know the part of the movie where the lead character has been through major
relationship issues, and she (or he) searches for something to take her mind
off of it? She channel surfs for several
minutes but can only find sappy romances.
After giving up on the TV, she tries to listen to the radio. When she figures out that all of the stations
are currently playing love songs, she decides to get some air. On her walk, she sees about ten different
couples. No matter what she does, she
can’t escape it.
The past few days have been a little
like that for me, except it has been another lesson that just keeps popping up
everywhere. If God hasn’t done this with
you yet, trust me, He will. He knows
that we can be thick-headed and good at ignoring or explaining away the
messages He is trying to get through to us.
That, or He knows we aren’t wanting to face those areas of our life that
need to be addressed. So, He repeats
Himself – using anyone and anything in our lives to get our attention.
On Thursday, I went to the evening
chapel at Maranatha Bible Camp (my husband was at camp all week leading worship
for around four hundred middle schoolers).
The subject of Pastor John Stone’s message was contentment. One particular quote that grabbed my attention
went something like this: “The secret to contentment is trusting that God is
good enough and powerful enough to have already given us everything we need to
live an abundant life.” I don’t need
more than what I already have to enjoy and to fulfill God’s purpose for my life
today.
I
am in a ladies’ small group that is going through a study on Philippians in the
First 5 app, and Friday’s study was about contentment. The picture quote by Karen Ehman that
accompanied the verses and the teaching said: “Lord, teach me to embrace my
circumstances, knowing it is You alone who gives me the strength to accept
where You have me right now.” Paul wrote about contentment from prison while
facing all sorts of accusations. He also
wrote about how his imprisonment was advancing the gospel. He is an amazing example of embracing
unwelcome circumstances by seeing them from God’s perspective.
On
Saturday morning, God brought to mind some notes that I took while reading Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara
Hughes during my first year at Frontier School of the Bible. I dug those notes out and found a quote that
she used from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs:
“Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit,
which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in
every condition.” I pulled out the book
and re-read the chapter. Later, Hughes
writes “The rare jewel of Christian contentment will be yours when all that God
is and all that He has done in Christ Jesus fills your heart.”
Lately, I have been anything but
content. I thought about what the
opposite of Burroughs’s definition would be and came up with this:
discontentment is that harried, disturbed, divided, insatiable frame of spirit,
which frantically pushes against and distrusts God’s wise and fatherly disposal
in every condition. This is where we
naturally go when we want more than what God has chosen to give us. At least, it’s where I go. Discontentment is fueled every day by
advertisements, social media, movies, TV shows, music, and more. Of course we are inclined to be discontent!
Contentment must be learned, and it
must be intentionally chosen. I have to
choose to dwell on who God is and what He has done. I know from experience that I end up in a far
better state of mind by letting those truths fill me up than by following after
Eve and suspiciously accusing Him of withholding good from me. I have to believe that I can live abundantly now.
He has already given me every spiritual blessing and everything I need
to be completely satisfied and content in Him.
This doesn’t mean that I won’t ever have desires or that I shouldn’t
ever pursue my desires. It does mean
that my heart needs to be kept in check.
I need to be okay with the idea that my desires won’t be fulfilled if
they do not line up with God’s will, and I need to trust that His will is good
and perfect. He should be my first
pursuit. As my heart aligns with His, I
will find contentment that is independent of my circumstances and a rest that
allows me to thrive and bloom exactly where I am at right now.