Contentment
Why is that so hard sometimes? When I have something that is adequate and works why do I think I need something better or more? The past 5 weeks I have been in more shops (stores) than I have in the last two years combined. I have even made multiple trips to the same store in the same day! Some of you think that would be nirvana! Setting up a house for the second time in two years can be exhausting. At first you think, "how fun." But marathon shopping after marathon shopping and assembling virtually everything you buy, I'm ready to just be! Although, I am getting quite versed in putting bolts, washers, and nuts together. I've come to the conclusion that two of those contentment busters is spending time in a store and looking through the local ads.
How do you do it? How do you remain content in a world that screams: "you've got to have more!" We're in this together and like Paul told Timothy, godliness with contentment is GREAT gain! Contentment is really more about the state of my heart than the state of my bank account/ contents I own. The question I need to ask is: "is there something missing in me than is driving this lack of fulfillment?" Hopefully, as I age I am learning that the only real fulfillment comes from the One who is more than enough for me...Yahweh-yireh. He is the God who will provide! I'm grateful He is and does. How about you?
I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13, ESV)
ReplyDeletePaul says that he has "learned" to be content. I wonder if his experiences of life listed below have anything to do with that learning. It seems that God uses the challenges of life ("facing plenty and hunger") to teach us the joy of contentment.
23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,2 in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Good to see that according to your blog you still live here :) Wanna catch up for a cuppa this arvo?