Seasons of Discontent

Placing Walmart bag onto the kitchen table, I look up at temporary dining room curtains that continually fall off of their makeshift pole; and with a familiar sinking feeling, I again find myself wishing we'd gone ahead and invested in something quality when we had had more money. As I move down the steps to empty out car's groceries, I grimace at the duct tape peeling off of pieced together car mirror. I surely didn't think it would be over a year before we could do something about it.  Seems like there is always somewhere else that we need to spend the 300 that it would take to get it fixed. I glance at the kid's weather beaten wooden fort, and unfinished landscaping of our large half-acre, and defeatedly wish again for just a little extra money, and time Lord...

Contentment is hard to find because we are a restless people; we live in a culture that purposefully creates discontent. The problem is that we are experiencing discontentedness in things that shouldn't bother us, material things, and we are not discontented about things we should be discontented about...spiritual growth.

                Things are backwards.

When mankind works in his own strength for his own satisfaction he lays up for himself earthly and spiritual misery. This is what causes lethargy in approaching our work, family, life in general and especially the work of the Lord. An un-Biblical approach to whatever mankind chooses to do sooner or later births forth an inward bitterness.
       ~Joel Nelson

To covet anything more than God, is to place that thing we covet above God, which is idolatry.


It's not like I want a new car, I really have given up all hope of ever having one of those again, I just want to be able to keep the one we have looking nicer. Things are starting to get really old around the house...I have to admit that I didn't think bath towels could go through this many washings and not fall apart. I'm not complaining though...

The core of man’s rebellion against God: a lack of thankfulness and a desire for something that God didn’t provide. This was at core of the temptation in the Garden of Eden. And it’s at the core of the battles and struggles we face daily.
     ~John MacArthur

I'm truly glad that we got the boys...going to Russia six years ago turned out to be one of the few good things I have done with this life you have given me, but...there are times, I'm rather ashamed to admit, that I really miss the freedom to make more money, and not have to continually clean a house that is starting to fall apart, and even to have uninterrupted time just for... myself.

This lack of contentment and gratitude stems in part from our efforts to control the content of our lives in spite of what Christ may or may not desire for us to have. It also stems from our tendency to focus on what we do not possess rather than all the wonderful things we have already received.

       ~J. Hampton Keathley III

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

~1 Timothy 6:6

      

In fact, this whole experience of getting married at 42, giving up my well-paying job, moving to a different state, and then adopting two boys at the same time in the following five years proved to be a lot more responsibility and sacrifice than I had anticipated and I...feel it. Sometimes alot...

If we are not grateful for God’s deliverance in the past and His benefits in the present, we will not be grateful for His promises for the future. Scripture exhorts us to lay hold of our hope in Christ and to renew it frequently so that we will maintain God’s perspective on our present journey.



We can be content when we put our hope in His character rather than our own concept of how our lives should appear.
      ~Joel Nelson

I want to be content in all things Lord...You have given me more blessings than I can count! Keep me close to You, believing in You...

 finding everything I could ever want or need

in You.

Coveting is the negative side of the positive commands, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind… and love your neighbor as yourself.” The only way to not break this commandment is to find in Christ all that one needs. Anytime there’s something more that we think we need than what we already have – which then forms the impetus for breaking the other commandments – so that we turn to other “gods”, find satisfaction in things, take God’s name in vain, disregard the Lord’s day by justifying the “need” to work on that day, dishonor those in authority, boil in anger to the point of murdering in one’s heart or beyond, desire sexual relations outside the God-ordained design, take what belongs to another, tell lies, etc. – at the root is a covetous desire for something we believed we should have that we were not given.
       ~Francis Schaeffer

Keep me thankful and more alive to the grace You give in the present moment... not worrying about if there will be enough grace to deal with the future.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
      ~2 Corinthians 9:8

Father God,  JEHOVAH-JIREH~ forgive me for murmuring about my circumstances, taking issue with Your sovereignty. You order all the circumstances of human life, and I crave to be entirely satisfied with the state and situation in which You have placed me. Discontent is the very essence of ingratitude, help me to not let it stifle my voice of thanksgiving. As the deer pants for the water brooks (Ps. 42:1)... Let my soul pant only for You, O God.

Communion with God is essential for contentment. Do you spend time with God? The longer you concentrate on His glory, the less you will care about acquiring more possessions. When you are fully committed to Jesus Christ, you will be so overwhelmed with how rich you are that you couldn't care less about anything else. The world is going to pass away and everything in it (1 Jn. 2:17). Therefore, don't lay up treasure on earth; lay it up in heaven (Mt. 6:19-20).
        ~John MacArthur

      

Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none [or nothing] upon earth that I desire besides thee.

~Psalm 73:25

Joining Ann @ Holy Experience and the rest of the Gratitude Community by continuing the counting of multitudes of blessings, and being ever so grateful. Keeping a List of a 1000 Gifts that paves a way to a life of thankfulness.

161.) Income Tax Return:)

162.) my good part-time job.

163.) only two months left of this school year (then off for summer!:)

164.) Good memories of my grandpa's house, which is about to be sold.

165.) an extra heaping of snow in the mountains this last week...
         (sorely-needed for the irrigation in our valley)

166.) cherry tree blossoms..and their smell....

167.) Good group of students who are working hard
          to meet Project Fair deadline.

168.) the boy's Lego projects.

169.) Tostadas on a Sunday night.

170.) For Christians who are willing to go abroad and do the Lord's hard work...
                     in a foreign country.

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora