You never know what may come when you least expect it because you are gratefully content with all He has given you where you are right now
The mystery of our futures can be unlocked in where we are right now. Although it seems the pursuit of making a future would work best, we must remember that our future starts and becomes from right now.
Contentment is the fruit of a thankful heart and does not reflect complacency or idleness in your life. It simply shows proof that God is your provider, trusted with every part of your life. Contentment shows the evidence that what He wants for your life makes all the difference in how satisfied you are, whether you have much or little to this world and those around you. Contentment is a heart at peace with nothing to prove and nothing more to gain. We miss the good and amazing things right under our noses when we don't see them there.
Think about how much that happens to us when we are filled with wanting basically what we don't have now.
If our focus is on what we don’t have, how can we see what we do have right now?
I think in a round-about way we are terrified from missing out on a blessing we don't yet have as if God will dangle it for a brief moment and if we aren't looking, we will miss it forever.
Let me tell you right now if that were the case, just about every good thing in my life now I would have overlooked or missed it.
I am so thankful God doesn't do that with us. We will not miss out on something He intends to be ours or else He would be a liar towards the things He promises us.
That is where we find great freedom. We find freedom to be content with where He has us now, not having to be constantly looking around at our future to jump on that "next break" to catapult us from the place we think we are lacking where we are now. Us looking to jump on or somehow make happen His next provision for us won't make it happen any more than us trying to manipulate our lives to become what He has promised us in the first place.
Talking with a friend recently reminded me through his decisions in how he is choosing to trust God with something important in His life. He told me, “I have done all I could do . . . but God has to be the one to make this happen . . .”
Is it possible that things work a little easier than we make them out to be?
For me, I have seen that the battles I face in life often may be exclusively within myself . . . and not necessarily caused by the circumstances around me.
I am reminded of a scene from the latest Rocky movie franchise, Creed. Balboa's character takes the young Creed to the mirrors in the boxing gym. The mirrors are used for the fighters to watch themselves as they shadow box, almost using themselves as their opponent, slipping and avoiding their own punches.
After they walk over to the mirrors and Creed is looking at himself, Rocky Balboa says . . .
"You see this guy here staring back at ya? That's your toughest opponent. Every time you get into the ring, that's who you're going against. I believe that in boxing and I do believe that in life, okay?"
There isn't a man on this planet who can't agree with that one hundred percent. Most of the time, I cannot blame anyone but myself for believing the perspective I may see towards my life. It becomes really simple . . . I can either have my eyes on what I see or what our Father sees.
It can only be one of those.
Contentment rests here on this simple truth.
I absolutely love to hear a man's heart in that position of humility, knowing darn well that God is the one who moves the waters to make dry a path that before should have been impossible to walk through.
He is the one who has the authority to calm the rage in a storm . . . and provide for our every single need.
We have a freedom to trust Him to war on our behalf while we get to live a life full of adventure and extraordinary passion, not allowing ourselves to be taken back by fear and dismay based on what we see right now.
It doesn't mean we don't have to fight, but it does mean we don't have to play the role that is God's alone to fulfill in our own lives.
We can be content with where we are now, all the while having a confident hope and trust that He is working right now on the behalf of a future He has planned for us. We don't have to figure out our future . . . what it will look like . . . or even what will become from all we end up doing now.
Imagine the difference that would make in how we love and live and pour out everything we have into each day that comes . . . all because we know we are not wasting our best on what may seem insignificant now.
You never know what may come of the ground you God leads you to take now in your life. You never know what may sprout forth from the seeds you plant now.
You never know what may come when you least expect it because you are gratefully content with all He has given you where you are right now.
Just take a few minutes right where you are now and, with opened hands, release the things that you may have speculated for your future and how it has effected how you live now in your life . . . how you love now towards those in your life. See how it has held you back?
Offer that to the Father and release yourself from its hold on how you live now . . . let Him free you by giving you His perspective.
Hopefully during this journey finding contentment, a thankful heart grows in you, freeing you to see the world how He sees the world.
