From 2-8-15
*These are my thoughts and I’m left with more questions than answers.*
Is the constant want for more really greed or lack of contentment? Can you live in contentment with what God has given you today? Or are you constantly looking for the next thing in your life? I know I do that all the time. In preparing for the race I was constantly counting down the months and days until the race would ‘start’. Did I miss out on some great opportunities before the race because I was thinking about the race? Most definitely. Did I stay in step with the Holy Spirit’s leading during that time? For the most part, yes.
I have an issue with staying present and it is actually a lack of being content with what God gives me each day to live out. What if I actually asked the Holy Spirit to teach me something new each day instead of every once in a while. What if I actually stopped to take in the views, noises, and smells in a deeper way than a transient glance. What if I saw everything, every moment, as a gift from God Himself to be fully enjoyed with Him. Because I’ve found that once the thing I’ve been waiting for happens, or is happening, I don’t feel more content. And I wonder if I missed out on something God had for me in the present while I was gazing at the future. When my eyes are not fixed on the present how can I enjoy the gift of the moment God is giving me? His gift is the present in His Presence. I actually live in no other time, past or future, but the present. The way to live in the present is to fix our eyes on the Gift, Jesus, and He does something really neat. The future we dream of becomes the present around us because the more we gaze at Him the more we want what He wants. Scripture says that He will give us the desire of our hearts when we seek first His Kingdom and Righteousness. I think that’s because the more we seek Him the more our desires become His. And He desires that no one be lost. How that manifests is different based on who He is working through. It could come through working with street kids to show them their value. It could come through a teacher staying late to help a student with math. It could come through a ranch where people come into God’s healing presence through nature. Whatever it looks like His Kingdom is coming through us, His beloved children. And everything we need for that to happen will be given to us. He is good and He loves us. And the best way to enjoy Him is to be thankfully content in what He gives us to do each day. The grass is never greener on the other side. The grass is only green when you choose to be content with where you are and what you are doing. Said another way: the grass is only green when you choose to be content with where God has you and what He has you doing because you fully trust Him; that He actually does have the best plan for you and that He is leading you there and that you are already in it.
