Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Hebrews 13:5 NKJV)
“Where are You, God?” I sniffed, grabbing another tissue. I waited in silence, expecting a booming voice to speak from heaven. Not sensing God’s presence was unusual for me. Had I done something wrong? Why couldn’t I feel His comfort. Like a light chasing the darkness away, I recalled today’s verse. God hadn’t left me. He hadn’t forsaken me, but I needed Him to drown out the loneliness and collect the pieces of my broken heart.
Have you ever needed a reminder of God’s presence? Have your prayers seemed to evaporate into thin air? Hebrews 13:5 was my life preserver that day, and I imagine it’s kept you afloat at times too.
I never paid much attention to the first part of the verse until I heard a message about contentment. How are we suppose to be content in a season of sleepless nights and tear-soaked pillows?
My spiritual curiosity was aroused. Does God really want us to be satisfied in places that aren’t satisfactory?
I discovered that the words “content” or “contentment,” almost always refer to finances and materialism. That’s what covetousness is; an unhealthy desire for more stuff. Covetousness wants what someone else has.
God wants us content and not complaining. However, God doesn’t want us camping out in an unhealthy place. Obviously, God doesn’t want us content in sin. He wants us to repent. He also doesn’t want us living paralyzed by an anxious heart or apprehension. God won’t leave us in a state of depression or defeat.
After Elijah’s Mount Carmel victory, he received news that the evil Queen Jezebel wanted him dead. Elijah couldn’t leave the country fast enough. Elijah collapsed under a tree as he asked God to kill him. Fear and depression had taken Elijah to a place God didn’t want him to go, not just a geographical place, but his state of mind. As Elijah sat in a cave, God asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9)
Can you identify with Elijah today? Is God asking you the same question? What are you doing here?
Friend, while contentment is a godly attribute, we must be discontent in certain circumstances. I want to rally you together as an army of women who refuse to be content in the hard places.
Perhaps you have given up the fight. Maybe you have surrendered to what seems impossible. God wants you to move forward, and He is by your side as you take that first step.
Let’s join hands and walk out of that dark cave together into the marvelous light of God. Never be content with anything less than peace a joy.
Lord, escort us out of the places where you don’t want us to live. We speak to the depression, the fear, the defeat and discouragement. It must flee because we are not content with it. You have given us an abundant life filled with Your peace and joy. Yes, storms will arise, but today we take back what the enemy has stolen from us. In the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
DIG DEEPER
Read Philippians 3;13-14 NKJV:
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
HIKING THE TRAIL
The enemy isn’t going to be happy with your decision to move forward. Expect retaliation, but remember the One within You is greater than those on the outside. Stay close to the Word and in prayer as you walk out of your cave of darkness.
RELATED RESOURCE
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Originally posted on June 21, 2021 @ 3:00 am
I use to wake up “dreading” going to work. Not because I did not like my job but because I knew that going to work meant two things. One physical pain (my back and knees) trying to do the physical part of the job when I could not be behind my desk doing the paperwork part of my job. And the second was the mental exhaustion of being surrounded by my staff always coming to me “Only” when they needed something or had a complain about a co=worker. Being an introvert being around people for hours and hours drained me emotionally. The physical part of my job drained my body. I went home each day physically in pain and emotionally drained.
Now both of these issues I brought onto myself. Let me explain. Physically I choose food over God and eventually grew to my highest weight of 425 pounds. My knees were shot, my back could not support my large body mass and just walking across a room had me gasping for breath and sweating like a pig. “I” put myself in that position. I also put myself in a job God kept saying “NO” to me. Being a manager (to me) meant sitting behind a desk doing all the paperwork side. It was going to mean a break from the physical side of the job I could no longer do. BUT I WAS SO WRONG. I had to take clients to Dr. appointments. That meant walking, load the wheelchair van, lots of standing at times. All the things I could no longer do without pain. Then there were the call-ins. Shifts to cover (ALL the physical part of the job that I really could not do anymore) cover shifts after being manager all day already. Covering night shift then stay the day to keep dr appointments that were hard to get in the first place and even harder to reschedule. Oh and the text messages/phone calls in the middle of the night (that were NOT emergency issues) that could of waited till I got to work.
The job God kept telling me NO to but I applied for anyway is what was my “cave” moment in life. It was not where God wanted me to be. Not was my weight. Or my physical limitations. Those were my cave too. God knew my introvert side would struggle with the staff my house had as they were needy, inconsiderate a lot of the time, struggled with working as a team and had no respect of the boundaries of the manager. I knew that going in as I worked in that same house for 16 year so none of that was new to me. But I guess a part of me thought it would be different for me. It was not.
You definitely have a gift of discernment. How many people can honestly say I messed up, took my own road and didn’t listen to God?