Contentment, a Double Edge Sword

Finding Peace in 
Our Circumstantial Discontentment

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The crowd says, "Follow your heart."

The Cross says, "Follow Me."

Matthew 10:38 NKJ   And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

We all have problems; some problems worse than others.  Most often our problems are the result of our disobedience of God's will for us in the way we live.  In our disobedience we become discontented and contented at the same time!  It is not amazing that we become contented with the discontentment within ourselves and the life we live.  We often seem to have no clue where to turn and what to do, but just do not want to step out of our comfort zone and try what God wants for us.  Thus, in not knowing how to proceed or knowing solutions and not liking them we succumb to living in our discontented comfort zone.  We just settle into a life of trying to be contented with our discontentment in the way we live life.

However, we have hope in the Holy Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit lives within us, we have our promised Guide and Comforter provided by God with the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives.  With the Holy Spirit we should pray for guidance in our lives.  When you pray, you find encouragement in living live when you include this in your petitions: "God, I love you and want nothing else but to live in your Holy Spirit and Walk in Your Way." 

Pray it often everyday.  When you start thinking of your problems, think of Him, immediately, and start praying.  Discern carefully, hold on to what you know is good, then as you feel and know  you  are in His Guidance, Run, Sprint and Leap into your Spiritual Guidance.  

God loves us especially when we acknowledge that we are sinful and we need Him and the Holy Spirit.  We all are living with and one of our most frequent sins, selfishness.  We want what we want, and we want it Now! which seems to be our human condition.  We are sinful and we know it, we are needful of God's love and we know it, we may even desire the guidance of the Holy Spirit, yet we still sin in spite of knowing we shouldn't!   Again, selfishness is the greater part of this disobedience.  We know something is not good for us, yet we still want it.  As much as this is easy to write, we know we need the Holy Spirit, yet it is difficult to properly execute living in the Guidance of the Holy Spirit.... initially.

One thing Jesus taught us was to follow Him, His behavior, and His teachings.  We must follow His behavior as he did Set the Example.  Stuff, many times sorry stuff, seems to have a lock on us despite what we seem to be able to do.  And, it causes us many times to uncontrollably sin.   To get rid of some, if not most of the sorry ‘stuff’ we create in our lives, we just have to do as Jesus did:  We must allow the guidance of the Holy Spirit to control our lives.  Following His Baptism, when He was led into the desert, Jesus was following the lead of the Holy Spirit.  Once there, He recalled what He needed to defend Himself against the devil (evil),  IT WAS SCRIPTURE!  Today, we have scripture to address our every behavior in all parts for our lives!  We must study and use it.

When we turn to God in our times of problems, God is pleased and especially loves us, even if we continue to feel the pull to sin.  Even if we fall into doing what we should not do, He is patient and most happy when we return to Him.  One of the most Glorious behaviors on God’s plan is this:   What He most desires to do in our lives is to forgive us!  We have to keep trying to pull away from our sinful ways and  Yes! it is hard.  But, with continued prayers everyday, and in with our sincere humbleness, the prayers will be authentic.  The fact is, Prayer works in our lives! But remember, prayers work in God’s time, not in our planned time.  We have to be patient too with ourselves but also remember that God's patience and forgiveness is not a license to sin.

Praise God, that through our thinking and praying in Him, we become more faithful as we seek His Guidance because we see the blessings of our faithfulness.  There is no problem, no decision we make that should not be preceded by prayer.   

My biggest failures in life came when I did not pray, and my greatest success came on the heels of prayer. In our prayers God takes us in our sorrowful mire and  prepares us to help ourselves and others.  If we allow ourselves to be taught, He will teach us through our mistakes and problems.

Do not be content with where you are.  Instead, strive to reach and live where you should be- content with the Holy Spirit filling and guiding your life..  As St. Paul advised, Focus in our every situation and be thankful.  Disobedience brings discontentment.  But sometimes we are comfortable to live in contentment with our discontentment and most probably because we are afraid to step out of our ordinary lives into Extraordinary lives.  Do not be content with your discontentment in your disobedience to God.  Pray for your contentment to come to you only by living in Christ and the Holy Spirit.

God is ahead of us in everything we do, preparing solutions  as we are in a battle everyday with the evil around us.  We are pulled by: our job, by a crowd of discontented people telling us how to live, by TV commercials telling what to wear, eat, drink, and live with.  Situation comedies demonstrate the easiness found in ordinary sinful pleasures, or feelings of helplessness and/or a lack of confidence; but never is there contentment in those behaviors.  Giving in to our pleasures do not satisfy the inner cravings of our soul.  We cannot win those and other battles alone.  We need Him, our Highest Authority in each and every moment of our lives to help us keep our focus .... on Him.

As you come to know that you are living in His will, then follow your heart Purified by the Holy Spirit.  You will initially be in awe of what God leads you to do.  Then, as you continue to live in His will, constantly discerning what it is that God wants you to do; follow those desires and unhesitatingly jump into Faith and Follow the pureness of the Holy Spirit just aching to lead you in the ways of Jesus that God would have you live.

Then, you will find peace of mind in your life and real contentment regardless of your life's situation.  Then, and only then, do you really come to understand what St. Paul told the Thessalonians, "Pray Always; Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will through Jesus Christ. "

Thanks Be to God.

© Lonnie Coggins

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