Content with Circumstances

Most of us can categorize our lives in both positive and negative ways. We could write a glowing list of the positives in our lives, and could then write a list of all the sobering negatives. Both the lists are most likely true, but our view of each list should be different.

How do you categorize your life? Let me encourage you to list the positives and negatives in your life and then let’s ask ourselves, which list do I spend the majority of my time dwelling on?

“Two women looked through prison bars
One saw mud the other saw stars”

When you look at your two lists, is your gaze looking down at the mud or is it lifted to the stars?

I’m sure that every one of us, at some point in our lives, has been in/are in circumstances that appear to be prison bars. God wants you and me to learn to be content in the “prison bar” circumstances because after all those circumstances are what God has Sovereignly ordained we walk through so that we may draw closer to Him. How do we learn to be content in those circumstances?....

We learn in Philippians 4:11 about Paul’s contentment “in whatever circumstance.” In the beginning of chapter 4 Paul describes our part and God’s part. First, our part, “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God.” (Philippians 4:6) Basically what that verse says is, don’t worry about anything, instead, pray about everything and tell God all your needs.

When confronted with negative circumstances, we have a choice: Will we pray about the problem or will we worry about it? As I’ve recently learned, when we make the choice to pray instead of worry, we will personally experience God’s peace (God's part- Philippians 4:7). What a promise! Let’s learn to take our thoughts captive and dwell on the positive!

“Beware of what you dwell on for that you shall surely become” – Ralph Waldo

Today let’s choose to give our anxieties to God, choose to pray sacrificially, choose to be thankful, and choose to dwell on the positive! We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!