This is a continuation of a previous essay by Lindsey Tollefson.
6. We own everything. Sometimes the biggest thing that is keeping us discontent is because we are not happy with what we have been given in material possessions. Especially in the United States it is so easy to think that we deserve everything and we are really good experts on covetousness. Christians often react to materialism in a gnostic way, saying that we should not want things in this world because they are only material.
But I don’t think that is why we are told not to covet. God isn’t saying “Do not covet, because I’m going to take everything away from all of you.” He is saying “Do not covet because I own all of it, I made it, and you are my child. Everything I have made is your inheritance.” We have a great inheritance to look forward to in the Lord. Everything that we have in this world is like a down payment on the blessings we have to look forward to in heaven. God withholds from us because he is teaching us, as his children, but it is not because He intends to always withhold or because He doesn’t want us to be surrounded by beauty.
7. Jesus suffered too. It is such a comfort to know that a God who is sinless and perfect chose to take on humanity and experience all of our struggles. Any struggle that we go through, He has walked through the valley. We can find joy and contentment even in our struggles because we know that He suffered in order to be our deliverer. He didn’t suffer so that He would just be able experience empathy, He suffered so that He could rescue us, so that our sufferings can be nailed to the cross and put to death.
8. We have to ask. James says that the Lord gives wisdom to anyone who asks, and He loves to give it. When we are struggling with discontent, with being unhappy with how God is writing our story, our first course of action should be to ask for wisdom which will bring contentment. We shouldn’t be happy with just being able to function through a trial, we should seek and expect complete peace and contentment. We have been given the Holy Spirit, and we should expect him to work in us. When those who do not have the Spirit suffer, they can find ways to cope. But we should not settle for coping. We should ask the Lord again and again for contentment in our trials. Everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks will find.
9. We live for God. When we are living for ourselves and thinking about everything we want in life, it is impossible to find contentment. Even if we had everything we ever wanted, we can’t find contentment in living for ourselves. But when we know that we have been baptized into Christ, that He has claimed us for His own, then everything we do in life we do for Christ. It is much easier to find joy and peace with our story when we know that we are living out His perfect will for us. He is more important to us than anything else we pursue. We know that if something doesn’t work out, it is because He is orchestrating something else for our good. Our jobs, our families, our chores, everything we do in service to Him and He is pleased with our work.
10. We are in covenant with God. The story of Scripture is a story about love and promises: God’s love to His people and His promises to them. That is a beautiful thing about the covenant that He makes with His people. He gives promise after promise after promise and He is always faithful to those promises. Every struggle that we face has a promise attached to it.
There is no aspect of our lives that God has not redeemed and that He has not given us a reason to hope in. There is no relationship so broken that He cannot heal, there is no sickness that he cannot cure, there is no poverty that He cannot provide for. Even in our darkest and hardest days He has a promise for us from Isaiah 43, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
11. Dwelling on heaven. This so easy to say and so hard to do. It is easy to say that we should just think about the day that we will be in heaven and all of our pain and struggles will melt away, but it is hard to remember it when we are facing every day. When we are struggling with disciplining a difficult child or when we miss someone we love, it is hard to just look past those days. The time seems endless until we are made new, and we still have so much to figure out here.
That is why weekly worship and daily Bible reading are so important. It is hard to keep our focus on where we are going and it is hard to remember how beautiful the promises are. We have to constantly be reminding ourselves and switching our thoughts to dwell on the sweetness of Christ. When we do this it does help to put our worries and fears in this life into perspective, and to find contentment and peace in our every day tasks.
12. Crying to God. We can not find contentment in ourselves. We have to be constantly looking to Christ, seeking after God for help. But, here is the sweet part: He loves to hear our cries. When we pour out our hearts and tell him everything that is on our minds and hearts, He is pleased to listen. When we are really struggling to find joy and our words fail us, we have many beautiful Psalms that we can pray. He wants His people to cry out to Him, to ask for help and give our concerns over to Him. And even these desperate prays have a promise, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4).
Lindsey Tollefson is a homemaker in Moscow, Idaho.