Contentment

Contentment is not a word that characterizes my life. These past few weeks in particular fighting has felt like failing. In God's kindness, He has sent reinforcements to help me fight to believe truth. The words of a sweet sister on a walk home from work, the preaching of a faithful pastor who feeds the flock well, and the writing of a dead Englishman.

Last Sunday MD preached from Psalm 80 - The Believer and Trials.

Sometimes trials come from losing something we had, or not getting something that we want, or having what we do not want. Through these, God is kindly showing us "that we don't have to have all those things we thought we had to have... we just need Him. If we have Him we have enough. He will provide for us everything we have to have." God is "peeling out of our hands things we cherish, things that are blessings from Him as He shows us what we really have to have is Him."

This brought to mind Philippians 4:19 "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

J.C. Ryle said

“Reader, if God has given you His only begotten Son, beware of doubting His kindness and love, in any painful providence of your daily life! Never allow yourself to think hard thoughts of God. Never suppose that He can give you anything which is not really for your good. Remember the words of Paul: ‘He who spared not His own Son—but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things’ (Romans 8:32).

See in every sorrow and trouble of your earthly pilgrimage the hand of Him who gave Christ to die for your sins! That hand can never smite you except in love! He who gave His only begotten Son for you, will never withhold anything from you which is really for your good. Lean back on this thought and be content. Say to yourself in the darkest hour of trial, ‘This also is ordered by Him who gave Christ to die for my sins. It cannot be wrong. It is done in love. It must be well.’"

These have been sweet meditations to fuel my fight for contentment and store up trust in God's goodness in the midst of trial - I have all that I need.