This year my husband bought me a short devotional book that God has really been using to change my heart. Contentment: A Godly Woman's Adornment by Lydia Brownback has challenged me on a daily basis. This book has so much wisdom pack into 107 pages...I found myself many times wanting to highlight every word on the page, every sentence felt like something I never wanted to forget. I am currently half-way through it and wanted to share some of the wisdom God has poured upon me from this insightful book. (I will simply give the info to you in bullet points to avoid getting too wordy...I could go on forever about each point and how God is working and has worked in my life relating to each one, but I won't right now. I'll save it for another post)
- If we trust in God wherever we find ourselves, we will know contentment whether the season is easy or hard...He will lead us in, through and out of any situation
- If your circumstances feel frustrating it may be God's way of getting you to deal with sin...turn to God and examine your heart
- If we focus only on what we hope tomorrow will bring, we miss all the pleasure of today
- We may not be able to change out circumstances but we can change the way we think about them
- God is the only remedy for our unhappiness...anything else we cling to for comfort is only robbing us to blessing
- Real contentment comes when we willingly embrace the loss of our maximum benefits and let go of our entitlement to them
- Good things are not worth it if God is not the giver. If we let go and allow God to work in His time, we will be content with or without our hearts desire
- Lack facilitates closeness to God in a way that prosperity rarely does--the more we have, the more self-sufficient we deceive ourselves into thinking we are
- Our problem isn't that we need something we don't have, our problem is that we don't find God to be enough
- God comes in the place of our desires to give us something better...joy, peace, guidance, love, security and communion with Him
- We should enjoy the material things God gives us but hold them loosely
- Home cannot be our comfort and security because it is constantly shifting (especially when you are a pastor's family). Contentment comes when we discover that home is much more about where we are going (Heaven) that where we have come from. We have the contentment of home right now, wherever we are, because home is where God has us...home is Christ who unites us to God--this is the only home we will never have to leave
- God may choose to bless us with things we plead for or he may not...getting out of misery is guaranteed if only we will give our heart to God
- When we get the "if only" (if only I have more money, if only I were thinner, etc.) we want so badly, it fails to satisfy so we set our sight and energy on getting the next thing. Only God can ultimately satisfy. When we pour our desires into God and His purposes, we find deep satisfaction that nothing else can gives us.
