I Am Content

The greatness of God reduces my complaints to dust. Every day, I teach myself to be content. I remind myself of Job in the Bible, who woke up one day to find his whole world suddenly torn apart. God must have known Job really well to trust him through incredible loss and suffering. Without warning and in the space of a few days, Satan brought terrible things down on Job. They came one after another like bullets, including the losses of his children, home, property, land, servants, crops, animals, and even his own physical health when he was covered in ugly and painful boils from head to toe.

The story of Job is a classic for every child of God because, through this man, we see with dramatic clarity the lower value of earthly possessions compared to the riches of knowing God. Job lost his children along with all his riches and honor. He lost everything except his wife and three friends, who made his situation worse. Yet God restored to him all he had lost and more (Job 42:10).

Don’t lose sight of where you’re heading. You’re in the world, but you’re not part of it (John 17:16). When you find yourself embroiled with the endless pressures of the world, remember the world is not yours forever. You have another world prepared and waiting for you.

All through the Bible, we’re told to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6), to overcome (Revelation 2:7), to rise above (Psalm 24:7), to be empowered by faith and the Spirit of God (Acts 1:8[HL1]). From Moses to Paul, we’re admonished not to put our faith in possessions or in relationships but in God alone. This is the key to contentment. With or without, we live abundant lives in him.

Affirmations:

• I enjoy the abundant blessings of God every day.
• I put no stock in what the world says I lack and continue to affirm the abundant life God has given me.
• I’m content in wealth and in poverty.
• Jesus came to give me abundant life, and being content in all things assures that.
• Some trust in riches and some in people, but I will trust in the name of the Lord my God.
• I take the eternal, unchanging arm of love, and I am content.