Life is hard. How can we learn to be content in every circumstance? Here are a few keys:
* Keep an eternal perspective. Jesus promised that in this world, we would have trouble…yet He told us not to fear, for He has overcome the world. Sometimes we forget that the world we live in is riddled with sin, and we expect our life to be only roses, all the time. But it is only in heaven that we will have all roses and no thorns. Our contentment in this life is tied to the knowledge that this world is not our home.
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11: 13-16
* We need to keep a proper view of God’s sovereignty. It is He who has an eternal perspective. He knows what needs to happen in each of our lives to accomplish His purposes. He allows rain to fall on the evil and the just. His ways are higher than our ways.
We do not worship an impotent God who has no power to restrain evil. The God we worship is all powerful, yet He allows suffering, even in the lives of His children. It is hard for our hearts to grasp that. Sometimes we will not understand why He is allowing painful circumstances, but we can always be confident that He loves us and works all things according to our good.
* We should turn to God for comfort when we suffer. There are times when I have to withhold from my children the very things they want most. I had this experience with each of my babies when they were weaned. I did this for their good, yet they did not feel it was good at the time. It was painful! Did those babies reject me for withholding milk from them? Not at all. They pressed in to me even closer for comfort. This is how we are to be with the Lord. Even when He withholds the very thing we think we need, we must press in to Him. He is actually what we truly need most of all.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:2
* We need to realize that everything we have comes from God. When all Job’s children, servants and livestock were killed in a single day, we read that “he fell to the ground in worship and said:
‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.'” Job 1:21
Job recognized that everything he had came from the Lord. We are tempted to think, “I built all this for myself, and the Lord has taken away”. Contentment comes as we praise and thank Him for all that He has given us, recognizing that we are dependent on Him for every breath we take.
* We need to find contentment in what really matters: our salvation. If we had everything this world offers, yet we did not know Christ, what would that profit us? As Christians, we have what truly matters. All else is to be counted as loss for His sake.
Are you new to this blog? There are several older posts about Contentment, gathered together as a link-list in the sidebar underneath the Contentment podcast widget.
If contentment is a struggle for you, I hope you’ll listen to my podcast, Secrets of Contentment, in the sidebar of this blog. I’ll also be sharing this talk LIVE today at 1:00 p.m. EST, at the Ultimate Women’s Expo. To hear the talk live, log in at Blog Talk Radio at 1:00, or listen on your telephone by dialing (646) 727-1978.
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