Let's talk about being content. I know! This past week facebook circulated a picture of an African Momma giving her barely alive and standing child, a drink from a huge water container. His knees were knobs and a thin layer of skin covered his bones. The picture stirs strong emotions in me. I have seen this, in real life, in Africa. Many have not and can easily believe its not real and continue reading their fb posts and carry about their comfortable life unaffected. Not me. That picture burns into my brain. Not just that picture, but the real moments in my life too.
While in Kenya we distributed food to many tribes. I have so many mental images of those beautiful people. Long lines of mothers and their children waiting in the scorching sun with any containers they could find to hold the grain. Children crying because they were burning up with fever from malaria. The little boy dying under a tree waiting for the medical team to arrive. The child with the distended belly probably due to a nasty parasite or for sure, hunger. The child picking up the leftover grain that spilled into the sand. And its not just in Africa! Its also in my own backyard (yours too). Our schools are sending home food bags for the weekend so children have enough food to get them through til they return to school on Monday. (How did we get here? In a first world country!! Perhaps that's another post)
And here I am. In America, in my cozy warm house robe on my computer at 6 am drinking my warm coffee, thinking about contentment. What does it mean? How does it work? How do I know all of this, yet still struggle to be content? Maybe you are waiting for me to give you the answer. I don't have it. I'm learning. And relearning.
I'm learning to be thankful for what I do have. I'm learning to give it to Jesus when I fall into a place of self absorption. When I start believing the lie that happiness comes from more, or from "simple" perfection. I must stop the insanity of it all and hand it over to Jesus. He is the cup. He is enough. That is where my hope comes from. Your hope too.
Satan wants us to believe otherwise. He wants us to strive with all our might, to lose focus through our wasted efforts trying to obtain a falsehood of security. Buying the lie that we can achieve contentment through things of this world. His goal in life is to steal our contentment in Jesus Christ. Staying in a place of discontentment is lacking peace. Not satisfied with Christ.
Today I refuse to let Satan have a foothold in my heart. I refuse to believe the lie that contentment comes from a false sense of security in anything other than Jesus. He is my cup. He is enough.
Satan wants us to believe otherwise. He wants us to strive with all our might, to lose focus through our wasted efforts trying to obtain a falsehood of security. Buying the lie that we can achieve contentment through things of this world. His goal in life is to steal our contentment in Jesus Christ. Staying in a place of discontentment is lacking peace. Not satisfied with Christ.
Today I refuse to let Satan have a foothold in my heart. I refuse to believe the lie that contentment comes from a false sense of security in anything other than Jesus. He is my cup. He is enough.
What steals your joy, your contentment? Crying, rebellious children? Lack of money? Broken relationships? Health issues? Perfection? Will you embrace Jesus with me today and rest knowing that HE is enough?
Hebrews 13:5: Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Content:
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Good thoughts...thanks.
ReplyDeleteHE is ENOUGH!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written. Thank you so much for sharing.