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It ain't easy!

It ain’t easy to be satisfied nowadays.   Even with five TV’s, a closet full of clothes, a man who loves me and three ADORABLE grandchildren, satisfaction does NOT come natural to me.  Wanting?  That comes natural.  Wanting to be thinner, wanting to be loved differently, wanting to have that house, that dress, that car. 

Why is that?  Why do I want what I don’t have?  Why doesn’t WHAT I have make me happy or satisfied?  Did you know that we canNOT make our own contentment?  Nope, we can’t.  Now we can surround ourselves with people and stuff and projects and keep busy.  We can look forward to a good dinner or events to make us happy.  We can go to a counselor or read books or search for truth to help us cope – but we cannot make our own contentment. 

The word, “contentment” as defined in Wikipedia is "enjoyment of whatever may be desired.  Contentment is an intuitive natural concept, and is self sustaining.”  Hmmmm, natural?  Self-sustaining?  I don’t buy that.  I don’t think its “natural” for us to be content.  This world (our stuff) canNOT give us contentment.  Actually, most times it causes dissension or heartache.  Something breaks . . .  someone leaves . . . loved ones make bad choices .

I think the concept of “enjoying what is desired” can be a form of contentment – depending upon what you desire.  Because if you are desiring something unreachable, something disastrous, someone off-bounds, something NOT in God’s will for you – that is NOT going to bring any form of contentment at all.  Satan will try and convince to the contrary- liar! 

God’s Word in Deuteronomy (chapter 6) says:
These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (My emphasis)

I want to love the Lord, my God with ALL my heart, ALL my soul, and ALL my strength.   To have this be my heart’s true desire is to find contentment.  For you see, it has nothing to do with me.  The emphasis is on a desire for God’s Will, His Way.  Not for anything of this world, or any of my own desires.  To desire what is God-pleasing, what He wants for me goes against everything “natural” out there.  That's why its not easy.   Every morning, I start my day with something like, "Good morning, Jesus Christ, I love you!   You are my God and my King.  I want to love you with my whole heart today - please, help me do that!"

This contentment business, these yearnings we have, is HUGE today.  To want contentment in God alone, to desire it unashamedly, is my prayer for you.  

May my heart see and my desire be, in Christ alone!!  

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