Lately the Lord has been teaching me to be content. I have been wanting to do a blog post about contentment for a while, but didn't exactly know how to do it and what to say. :) I think the Lord wanted to teach me a bit more about contentment before I sat down and started to write about it. :) ha ha. :D
I want to share with you something that the Lord has been putting on my heart recently. Alright, lets face it, weather we are discontent because we are single, or we don't have a job, or we don't know what to do with our lives, or we want more money, or maybe there isn't any chocolate in the house and that's why were upset (can you relate? :D) we ALL struggle with discontentment. It may not all be the same kind of discontentment, but we all struggle with it.
I have been struggling with being discontent. I was frustrated because it seemed like hard things were happening to me and my family, one after the other. It was the day before my sisters birthday, I was tired and not in the best of moods. I had been trying to fill up my discontentment and frustration with other things, trying to put myself in a good mood. It wasn't working. I was on Pinterest looking at clothes and movies... I stopped and typed in the search engine, "encouraging Bible verses." Which wasn't anything unusual, I often look for encouraging Bible verses to share. I scrolled down the choices, scanning verses, pinning the ones that I thought were encouraging, but my bad mood was still there. And then I saw one verse, and this is what it was,
Psalm 34:4-5
"I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed."
I looked it up to make sure it was a Bible verse. It was. ;) God used that verse that someone had posted to click something inside of me. I realized I was looking for my contentment in all the wrong places. I wasn't seeking the Lord. I was not looking to the Lord for my contentment. I knew if I kept on like I was, I would be miserable. No matter what was happening to me, I still had things to be thankful for. Betsy, Cory Ten Booms sister told her in the prison camps, to be thankful for the lice, because it kept the soldiers away so they could have their Bible studies and were able to teach the other women. If Betsy could find things to be thankful for in a dirty prison camp where she was being tortured constantly, then I think I can, in my circumstances find things to be thankful for.
Why am I sharing this with you? Well, to help you to remember, to look to the Lord for your contentment. Its so easy to get caught up in other things, movies, books, music, Internet, sports, etc. etc. that we loose sight of where our joy comes from. We are to "Let our light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven." (Matt. 5:16) What light is that? The joy that the Lord has given us! That only He can provide!
So look to Him for your contentment! Don't try looking for it anywhere else, it doesn't work, believe me. ;) He gave up so much for us, what are we willing to do for Him? If He calls us to be joyful and content in what He has given us, then by golly, lets do it! For the One who saved our lives from damnation to Hell. The True Super Hero! It is not easy, but dying on the cross I don't think was easy for Jesus. So, rest your contentment in Him, and let your light shine!
