Contentment In Spite Of Feelings

     Do you have difficulties in being content with your life in general?  Do you complain about things you don't have or even things you do have?  Do you feel like things just aren't going the way you planned?   Well there may be a reason for that. Sometimes God has different plans or He meets our needs and not our wants and we question Him. He knows what will make us better and what will do us harm.  

    Have you ever been praying for something and felt like your prayers were not being heard?  Have you felt as if your prayers were just not reaching heaven?  Well, I have been there.  I have had times in my life where I just felt alone and desperate for God to speak to me.  In those times, I know God was there.  He was just being silent for a season.  He wanted me to stretch my faith.  He wanted me to love on Him, even though I wasn't "feeling" like it.

     We have to get past our feelings.  Our emotions can sure cause havoc in our lives can't they?  They can cause us to get angry when we feel offense.  They can bring up feelings of guilt and condemnation when we know God has already forgave us of the sins of our past.  They will cause us to feel depressed when we feel things are not going as we think they should. They bring discontent when we don't feel like we have what we deserve. 

     I am guilty of letting my feelings lead me on many occasions.  After the fact, I know I was wrong to allow it to happen, so why do I continue to do it?   Well that is an easy question to answer.... it is because I am HUMAN.  Apart from God, I am a big, awful mess of a woman.  I am unable to do anything good or righteous without the Holy Spirit's help.  There have been many nights, after getting my kids to bed and my husband is sleeping, that I lay on my face crying out to God.  I pray "GOD HELP ME!"

      In seeking God, I am allowing my flesh to scream out as I decide to follow His ways and  surrender mine.  It is not easy!  It is downright difficult to allow our flesh to cry out all while we are relinquishing our plans for God's plans.  It is so painful, that many times tears will stream down our face.  We will ache all over.  We will "feel" that we won't be able to go through with it.

     Today, I woke up feeling like I wasn't capable of surrendering.  Satan had pounced on me even before I got out of bed by giving me a good ole headache.  Physical pain is always a great way to get us off track with God.  It makes us feel weak.  The only way to counter these attacks is to quote verses about how in our weakness, God shows His strength.  He is our healer.  After getting out of bed, I prayed and prayed for the Lord to take away my pain so I could function.  Then I heard a still small voice saying: "Won't you praise Me through your pain?"  Immediately I knew that God had a plan for me today.  He always has a perfect agenda for us, we just have to be willing to follow it.  I am still sitting here with a slight headache, but I refuse to allow Satan to take me out.  I have a family to love on, children to teach and a husband to care for.

     We have to trust God that he will be there to meet our needs. He will be there through our storms of life. He will answer our prayers.  He may not answer the way we thought He would or should, but He is sovereign.  He loves us more than we can even fathom.  We must be content and rest in knowing God has our lives in His hands. 

Challenge #3
Our contentment challenge for today is to sit down and write three things that you are thankful for, 

even though in the beginning, you

 were questioning it.

For our free workbook on contentment, just follow this link.  An Attitude of Gratitude