Contentment
Matthew 6:28-34 (HCSB) - And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
A couple of stories to get you thinking:
Dr. A. T. Schofield's eldest daughter was a great horsewoman, but being thrown when rough-riding got a depressed fracture of the skull upon which no surgeon would operate, and of which, after some years of great suffering, she died. "When my daughter had been ill a fortnight, her nurse came to me and said she thought I would like to know that she had become a Christian. `Why, what were you when you came?' `I was an atheist, Doctor.' `I suppose your patient has been speaking to you?' `No, she never said a word, but she is the only absolutely contented girl I ever met, and I couldn't understand it, so I asked for her secret, and now I'm a Christian.' "—Dr. A. T. Schofield.
A story is told of a king who went into his garden one morning, and found everything withered and dying. He asked an oak that stood near the gate what the trouble was. He found that it was sick of life and determined to die, because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine. The pine was out of heart because it could not bear grapes like the vine. The vine was going to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and have as fine fruit as the pomegranate. And so on throughout the garden. Coming to a heartsease (type of flower & also means, “peace of mind”), the king found its bright face lifted up as full of cheerfulness as ever. Said the king: "Well, heartsease, I am glad to find one brave little flower in this general discouragement and dying. You don't seem one bit disheartened." "No, your majesty, I know I am of small account; but I concluded you wanted a heartsease when you planted me. If you had wanted an oak, or a pine, or a vine, or a pomegranate, you would have set one out. So I am bound to be the best heartsease that ever I can."
Pursuit of the World and its Patterns vs. Pursuit of God and His Righteousness. One leads to idolatry and one leads to contentment with who God has created you to be and His provisions and purposes for you.
Which will you and I choose?
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