Contentment

Here is this week's SFTW from Pastor Andy:

Contentment

          Contentment has always been a struggle for me. Between losing jobs to closing businesses, growing expenses, going through a season of unemployment as a husband and father of 2 was not a picnic. Content was a word I would gladly have erased from every dictionary in every language on earth. Ok…that’s extreme, but you get the drift. Me no much happy.
          I was thinking about contentment and what it means because I gripe about where I’m at in life sometimes and Paul going though torture and living in the most deplorable jails the world has ever known was content. Philippians 4:11 Paul says that he has learned to be content in whatever state he is in which got me thinking about what contentment really is…or better…what it’s NOT
Contentment is not happiness- happiness is a temporary feeling. It’s not joy although it does go hand-in-hand with joy. Joy can bring a tear to your eye. Contentment…not so much. It’s not learning to like or even cope with your current situation and you don’t have to be happy about it. Knowing these really gave me a confidence boost. If Paul was happy in those prisons, I would feel like the worst kid God ever had and would probably be living in a closet under God’s stairs in heaven rather than in a mansion.
Contentment is a state of being. To be content is to understand:
1.     I AM in control: absolute authority and power over your life circumstances.
2.     I AM accomplishing my will for you and in you.
3.     I AM changing you for the better.
It really only comes down to one word: TRUST. Trusting God:
Psalm 131:2- But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child I am content.
          The child has contentment because there is trust. Babies cry when they have a need. After being taken care of long enough, the child no longer has to cry because they’re hungry or thirsty. There’s been a proven track record of faithfulness on the part of the parent to provide for the needs of the child that the child can now relax and find contentment knowing that his needs are going to be met.
          Without having gone through hard times, trust could never be built and the life circumstances that shake us to our foundations are provided to us by our loving Father who wants nothing more than for us to be able to rest in him during these times. The disciples learned to trust God while on a boat in a violent storm. As Jesus slept the disciples cried out to be saved just as babies do before the trust is developed.
         
“The anchor holds though the ship is battered.
The anchor holds though the sails are torn.
I have fallen on my knees as I faced the raging seas,
The anchor holds in spite of the storm.”

- LAWRENCE CHEWNING / RAY BOLTZ
         

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