Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me--practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
-Philippians 4:6-9
It is so easy to lose sight of being content in any circumstance that God has placed us in. Well, I guess I won't make assumptions so it is easy for ME to lose sight of what being content really means. God wants me to continually be content in any circumstance that He puts me in....ultimately contentment comes from truly trusting in the Lord's plan. The Lord continues to bless me in SO many ways and yet throughout each of them I hear Him ask, "So, do you trust me YET?" I feel like God asks me this question a lot and it is so easy to exclaim "YES!" when things are falling into place like I imagine. However, it is just as easy to look at circumstances that go against the plan in my own imagination and take away TRUE trust in the Lord. Why do I do this over and over again? The Lord has continues to prove Himself faithful and good ALL THE TIME but yet my heart still longs for the Lord to show me His goodness more and in bigger areas of my life. I realize that this relationship with God is a journey and intimate trust with anyone comes through learning to trust as we experience reason to be able to trust. The Lord blesses us over and over again so that we will develop deeper trust as we grow in Him.
Contentment in circumstance takes two parts: God's part and ours. Philippians 4:6 tells us flat out, "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Do not WORRY about anything but always pray by telling God your needs and always thank Him for His answers. The first part in the process of learning to be content is pure heart choice. We need to choose to pray rather than worry. Sadly, so many people, including myself from time to time, reverse this and worry about everything and pray as a last resort. It's like God has to literally force us onto our knees. It is obviously so much easier to worry, fret, lose sleep, or yell at others than to humble ourselves before the throne of God and pray. Our sinful flesh automatically goes to worry and trying to fix things in our lives by ourselves. We are already programmed to first be tempted to just worry about anything and everything that comes our way. This is where we need to put on our full armor, especially the shield of faith. Being able to fully humble ourselves and admit that we cannot defeat worry on our own is really putting full trust into the Lord's hands that HE CAN. We need to pray specifically but we also need to pray with thanksgiving in all circumstances. When we come to incredibly hard situations in life like the worry of having cancer or, more personally, where I am supposed to go and what I am supposed to do after graduation, it is SO hard to be thankful constantly. Psalm 116:17 says, "I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord." It truly is a sacrifice. We are sacrificing our pride of being able to be thankful on our own strength and calling upon the name of the Lord for the strength to praise Him in ANY storm or even just a waiting period in life. So we have a choice for our part of being content: are we going to pray or worry?
In Philippians 4:7, God's part is stated, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understand, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." If we continually make the choice to pray, God promises peace over and over again. Our hearts without Christ leading are poor and weak. When we choose to let Christ have the power over our minds and hearts, God promises that He will do His part in bringing us peace through guarding our hearts and minds for us. Honestly, it is hard to truly surrender every ounce of worry to the Lord to use and work in with His plan. But, God will not grant the peace that we continually search for unless we choose to pray. Those prayers could be constant prayers through Philippians 4:6-7 and praying for the Lord to give you more faith in the promise of His Word and the Truth that He has blessed us with. Having more faith is something that I have been continually praying for every single day because it is so easy to get distracted by my independent and self-controlling nature and not put every aspect in my life into God's hands and truly have faith that He will use every bit of it for His perfect plan. Being dependent on myself has always been one of the biggest strongholds in my life because I grew up with the need to be independent and rely on my own strength and power to be successful. The Lord sure knows how to knock me down to my knees, though.
Philippians 4:8 goes back to another aspect to our part. This verse says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. We need to dwell on the positives in life and the blessings that come from the Lord, even when we do not understand why they are a blessing. God asks us to control our minds and take every thought captive in order to be lead in obedience in following Christ. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." God commands us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. We renew our minds when we dwell on the positives the Lord has placed in our lives. Paul then uses verse 9 to remind us of our part and God's part again by stating, "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." We are called to practice when God teaches us through His Word. Practice means doing something over and over and over again. Practice is hard work but it always pays off. The specific things we need to constantly practice in learning contentment are choosing to give our anxieties to God, choosing to pray specifically, choosing to be thankful, and choosing to dwell on the positive. Again, Paul reminds us at the end of the verse that when we practice these things, God promises peace that will stick with us.
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