Contentment

Contentment...
I have struggled all my life with being content.  I always wanted more, or some other person's life.  I thought what I had wasn't good enough...that a different life would be more fulfilling..better.  I have learned now that I have been given the life that God has purposed for me to live.  I have been able to look back and thank Him for protecting me from what I thought was best for me.  Even though it is the life I am living in, I only see what is right in front of me.  God sees the whole picture...He is way up there looking far below on me.  In fact, God knew what me life would be like before I even came into existence. " For you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. "Psalms 139: 13-16
I wish I would have trusted God from the beginning.  I wish I wasn't constantly questioning Him on the different roads my life would take.  I think about Paul who was in prison.  He had been beaten, scorned, starved, etc. and he was in a cell surrounded by feces.  And yet he says, "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4: 11-13
Contentment is not a feeling, its an attitude. Contentment will not be gained when you get everything you want, it comes when you are grateful for the things you do have.   Contentment is not happiness...in fact God never promised us happiness.  He doesn't care about our happiness...He cares that we find contentment....contentment in whatever circumstance we are going through during that time. The only way to true contentment is staying in God's word.  His word speaks truth and love to us that can bring us joy and peace and...contentment.  We have to stop looking at what every one else has and being jealous of them...being jealous depletes us.  It gives us hopeless feelings. Envy destroys us physically...In Proverbs 14: 30 it says, "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." It destroys us spiritually, " For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." James 3:16  What a waste of my life I have spent wishing for different, better things and the damage it caused while I dwelled on it.  Therefore today I am choosing to be content...for there is joy in this life I am living!