Tag: Contentment

It Is Well With My Soul

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In 1873, Horatio Spafford’s wife and four daughters were on a boat trip travelling from the United States to Europe. The ship they were on collided with another ship and went down. His wife survived but all four of his daughters died in the wreckage. Spafford left soon afterward on a different boat taking the same long journey across the ocean to reunite with his wife. As he traversed the same route that his family had taken previously, I am sure thoughts of his daughters weighed heavy upon his heart and mind. This is the song he wrote on that trip. As you read through these verses, try to picture yourself in his place. Better yet, as you read through these verses, think through a hardship or tragedy that you have been through in your life. Let these words of Horatio speak to your heart and reveal the love and compassion of our Savior.

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Everything In Jesus

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Journal Entry // November 23, 2021

whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies-in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:11 ESV

Why do we do what we do? This is the question at the heart of my each and every action. My motivation is a key element to understanding myself. Not just understanding myself the way the world uses that phrase today though. Today the world is immersed in self-help & self-care, which is purely selfish at it’s foundation and against what Peter is talking about here. Understanding myself is meant to delve into my motivations to reveal where I am living, trusting, and believing in myself instead of God alone. The measurement against my motivation is simple: is God glorified through Jesus Christ.

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Sure Contentment

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Journal Entry // November 11, 2021

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5 ESV

Be content… This is the life lesson that God has been teaching me these last couple of years. Well, at least one of the lessons. An important lesson that I have struggled to grasp hold of in a deep meaningful way. I can look back over the last ten years of life and see how discontented I truly was with everything. I can now see how the love of money was quietly weaving itself into my everyday thoughts. I can see a bit more clearly how I was living a double minded life. Trying to serve Christ as best I could, but also wanting the things of this world.

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Bountiful Love

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Journal Entry // January 24, 2021

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 13:5-6 ESV

Remember… Remember all that the Lord has done for me. Remember his steadfast love. Remember his salvation. Remember how bountiful his dealing with me has been. These are the keys to the sorrow in my heart and the grayness in my soul. These feelings tell me that God is far from me and has forgotten me and is hiding his face from me. But these feelings lie to me. My flesh tells me these lies to draw my heart away from Christ. To keep my sorrow and worry in the forefront of my eye’s perception and my heart’s understanding.

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Godly Contentment

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But godliness with contentment is great gain, [7] for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

1 Timothy 6:6-7 ESV

Godly contentment. I have found it difficult this week to have godly contentment in my life. I have been assaulted with so many different thoughts, emotions, and feelings that are weighing me down. Although this weight is in my mind I can feel it affecting every area of my life. My heart, mind, soul, and strength have all been greatly affected by this continual wave of fear and guilt. So once again, God’s word speaks directly into my immediate need of the moment.

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