Chasing Contentment


Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
Phillipians 4:11



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Friday, August 26

We all struggle. I believe that God promises His people blessings and wonders and amazements. But I don't believe that He promised them in the ways our worldy eyes and hearts always want them. I also don't believe that those wonderful promises exclude Christians from the struggles of life.

It's been a hard week for me emotionally and mentally (as a result, of course, I'm now feeling run down physically). One of the things I can count on, unfortunately, is that when I'm struggling, I have a tendency to turn my displeasure to my own self-image, and focus my energies there. It's not very reassuring, but it's more comfortable sometimes (because of the familiarity of it) than dealing with what's really going on in our lives. And so this week, I've been in a funk.

Our church has an Intercessory Prayer Ministry, and each Wednesday, our prayer room is filled with volunteers (one for each 30 minute block of the day, from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.) who pray for prayer requests that have been made. I've participated on and off through the years as my work and family schedules allow.

It was good for me to go on Wednesday and focus on the needs of others, to get outside of myself in a time of prayer with God. As the week has drawn on, I've found that happening time and again, my being reminded of how those around me need prayer and love and support, just as I do.

Friends long for a baby. A friend longs for a husband. My grandmother is having heart problems, and my family is worried. Another friend searches for meaning in her life, for her heart's true calling. A friend's parents have faced (and continue to face) illness and her much-anticipated infant daughter may require surgery.

I hate it when people in church debate or discuss (and inevitably they do) why bad things happen to good people. That bugs me beyond words. They just do. Because we live in a fallen world full of our own sin and the sins of those around us, because our bodies are temporary to this world and our hearts are aiming for another but some days failing in our attempts. They just do.

The best we can do, I think, is to keep our eyes on the Lord and our arms around one another as we struggle through this life, along this journey of faith.

[  posted by Chel on Friday, August 26, 2005  ]
[   1 comments  ]

1 Comments:

You are right on on why bad things happen to good people. For some reason some feel that if you are good enough you get some kind of reward and that reward is that i read, the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

By Blogger Bro. Craig, at 7:40 PM  

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