Being Content

The Who (and not the what)

We spend a lot of time fighting against the way things are. We expend a lot of energy demanding what we deserve. We go to battle routinely, prepared to wage war against people and situations that stand in our way.

 

However, in the midst of our complaints and diatribes, we often forget that it is not the people and the situations that are really the focus of our contention. When we rail against the circumstances that we find ourselves in, when a complaining spirit is what epitomizes our persona, it is the One that allowed the situation that we are ultimately fighting.  When we are angry that life isn’t as we think it should be, it is bound to impact our relationship with the One who not only controls the wind and the waves, but also the details of our day.

As Stephen Neill wrote in The Christian Character:

Every virtue is a form of obedience to God. Every evil word or act is a form of rebellion against Him. This may not be clear at first; but, if we think patiently, we shall find that it is true. Why were you angry? You will probably find that it was because you were not willing to accept the world as God has made it; or because you were not willing to leave it to God to deal with the people that He has made.

In other words, our lack of contentment is ultimately not a disappointment in the way things are; it is an unwillingness to trust in the One who allowed it to be so.

 

Consequently, in order to be more content, we need to trust in Him more. We need to have confidence that God is still on His throne and nothing that happens on this Earth is outside of His purview. We need to fight a war with sin, not with the circumstances that He allows. And we need to strive to honor and obey Him regardless of the situations that we are in.

 

Share your thoughts….

How can we fight discontentment and therefore fight the temptation to sin?

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Growth Hope

Unknown Path

It’s tempting  to look back on the lives of people in the Bible and think that somehow their walk with God was  “easier” than ours. We say things like, “Well God spoke to them directly.” or “Jesus was right there with them” and think that their lives of faith didn’t require quite as much belief as ours do. Of course, this is only because we know the end of the story and somehow when you can see the end from the beginning it is easier to trust in God. Of course, this is a vantage point that the point who were living these stories didn’t share.

Take Abraham for instance. Known as the father of the nation of Israel, we may marvel at God’s work in allowing him to have a child in an old age, but we rarely fully consider what it must have been like for a couple who had been infertile all their lives, to welcome a child into this world well past their retirement age. Nor do we fully think upon what it must have been like for them to set out on their journey to the Promised Land. Calling it the “Promised Land” surely sounds inviting, but Hebrews 11:8b tells us that Abraham began his journey “not knowing where he was going.” Can you imagine that? The bags are packed, the herds are fed and your neighbors ask you – “So where are you heading?” “I don’t know,” you reply, “but God will tell me when I get there.”  That requires great faith. That requires confidence in God.

The same is true for the journey that God has us on. Often, we don’t know where the road that He is taking us on will lead. We may feel like we are going in circles. We want to know the final destination and God is asking us to take the first step, and then the next one, trusting that He longs to give good things to His children and that while there may be tough times along the path, we will see His goodness in the land of the living. Where He is leading us is not only for our good, but, more importantly, it is for His glory. We can trust Him not only because He knows the final destination, but because He designed the path and He’s walking the road with His children.

It’s hard to face the unknown. Yet as Corrie Ten Boom reminds us we should “never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Even when we don’t know where we are going, may we faithfully walk with the One who is leading the way.

 

To you, what does it mean to faithfully walk with God even when we don’t know where He’s leading?

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