Continuing Contentment

“Oh to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter
bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I
love. Here’s my heart, oh, take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above."

You may be asking yourself, what in the world do those words have to do with comfort or
contentment. In my absence from posting I have had these words running through my mind.
No, I did not waiver in my faith, but something that I have learned is that true comfort comes
from true contentment.There are times in our lives when we think we have mastered
something and then realize that the very thing we think we have a handle on is the thing we
need the most work on.

This past year has been a difficult and eye-opening year for me. I often find it very difficult to
let people know what is really going on in my mind. 2018 broke me of that (to a certain
degree) as we openly shared our story with what seems like the entire world. I was very
good at deflecting my true emotions as people came to us to talk about what was happening.
I would rather focus on others and what they are going through. It’s a good distraction.
However, when the distraction is gone, the problem remains.

The more Sam and I pursued becoming parents, the more I realized that I was very prone
to wander in my contentment. Without true contentment, there is no real comfort. If I am not
content with the life that God has given me, how can I ever truly look to Him for comfort?

When you are trying to learn a new skill in life there is a lot of continued work that goes into
mastering that skill. If someone has a problem with patience there is a process of getting that
under control. One does not just wake up one day and say, “hey, I got it! No more impatience!”
and then never have an impatient moment for the rest of their life. No, once a problem is
recognized there is a lot of work that is needed to maintain and grow in the problemed area.
Contentment is no different. Understanding what contentment is and where is comes from
does not make you a content person. It takes work. It takes trust. It takes help from God.
Daily deciding to be satisfied in Christ and to let your focus be knowing Him more will leak
into your everyday life.

Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth”

The King James Bible translates the word “minds” as affection. Where is your heart?
Psalm 37:4-5 says “Delight yourself in the LORD; and he will give you the desires of your
heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.” When we are
consumed in Christ it is hard to be discontent. Think about it! Christ left heaven and came
to earth not as a king, He came as the child of a carpenter. He lived a perfect life, endured
temptation and the agony of the cross and died in our place so that we could live forever with
Him. How can you not be content when you think about that?

True contentment will only come when you place your faith in Christ to save you from your
sins. True comfort only comes with true contentment. It is a daily decision to look back at a
one time choice in our lives and be satisfied that we are saved from our sins by trusting in
Christ. So I ask you, what is stopping you from being truly content? Have you accepted the
free gift of salvation? Where is your focus? Are you like me and get so caught up in trying to
make you heart’s desire come true that you forget that Christ is to be your heart’s desire?

Are you willing to make a daily choice to seek after God and not better circumstances? It is
a hard road but it is well worth the work!