I Still Do By Dave HarveySample

DAY 6

Sweet Satisfaction

The first ten years of Kenny and Erin’s marriage seemed pretty easy. Kenny’s business grew and Erin worked part-time only when she wanted to. Then an economic downturn pushed them into bankruptcy. 

Like scalpels, thorns slice deep. There’s the incision, the blood, and the throbbing pain. Extraction causes tender wounds. Then comes the healing, and it takes time. For Kenny and Erin, this included coming to terms with their loss, picking up the broken pieces, and finding faith to slowly rebuild. They learned to bear the regret, reject the shame, and adjust to new financial realities. As they were faithful to talk, confess, pray together, and ask for help, they noticed a change in how they viewed what God had already provided them. 

When life was about strength and success, Kenny and Erin were rarely content with what they had. They felt entitled to a certain quality of life, and they saw hardships and weaknesses as unnecessary intrusions, things to endure and find relief from as quickly as possible. Their marriage existed in part to help each other survive the bad times so they could enjoy the good times.

Trouble was, their search for satisfaction never seemed to end. In fact, the older they got, the higher their standards for satisfaction became. Then came their thorn, and what satisfied would never be the same. 

Kenny and Erin had never known sharp division in their marriage, but they also hadn’t experienced the sweet unity that came after their loss. Kenny and Erin’s newfound position of weakness also helped them to see God’s many gifts with clearer eyes, and, they felt less fearful of future calamities. A deeper faith ignited in them a fuller appreciation of their experience of salvation.

They learned to live satisfied today—not because they have all they desire, but because in Christ they have received more than they deserve. Kenny and Erin began to see that their circumstances don’t need to change in order for them to be satisfied in life. Because of the amazing riches of Christ, they can be “content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities,” for when they are weak, then they are strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Like strength in weakness and satisfaction in loss, name a circumstance when God showed you His power unexpectedly.