Faith Takes Practice
This verse is a familiar one for me. I have often read it while in the midst of a trial and tried to claim it as my own.
Unfortunately, there have been many times when contentment has eluded me and worry has resided in its place.
There are two words that stand out when I try to unravel how to experience this kind of contentment: secret and learned.
I know Jesus, have accepted him, and seek to follow him in my daily life. So why does contentment sometimes seem so difficult to grasp? I think that I rely on myself more than on God.
When I try to make life work well and don’t succeed, I continue to wrestle with solving my dilemma on my own.
Oh, I pray and read my Bible. I say that I believe God is in control of everything, but I live as if I am in control.
Instead of doing what I can and leaving the rest to God, I worry and manipulate to change circumstances. I miss the secret of contentment by being busy fixing instead of abiding and resting in my relationship with Jesus.
This is such a difficult thing to do because it seems passive, even irresponsible.
I know intellectually that I experience his power when I am weak (2 Cor. 12:9-10), but I often short-circuit that power with my own efforts.
Paul’s secret was to let God be God in his life. It was to trust in Christ to the extent that he fretted not when he was in jail or shipwrecked.
The other word that stands out to me is learned. So often when reading Scripture, I expect to be able to immediately apply what I have read. The word learned tells me that Paul didn’t experience this contentment right away either.
In Romans 7:21-25 Paul confessed,
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being, I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
We, like Paul, persevere in our learning to be content. The secret is in relationship with Jesus, the learning comes with practice.
Father, thank you that you are a patient God.