Seeking True Contentment
Every day we are enticed by mail, brochures, social media ads, ads on tv to buy the latest …., keep up with what most people are doing…., to have more…., to think of you…. make yourself happy… get that younger you….
Oh, happy for how long? Till the next thing is bought, got, attained?
Often reflecting upon myself and my thoughts – because you can really only do something about yourself – I often decide to not look at social media for a time, not to buy anything online, and I ask myself, “do I need that?”
If I cannot use self- restraint (a gift from the Holy Spirit) will I not cause a problem in my bank balance? In my vanity about my looks? In my relationships? In what God has for me?
Do I put me first and my pleasures or do I put God first?
Now it’s not bad having things but do these things have you?
Or could you give them all away and still be truly happy?
Like Paul states:
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5 NIV
And also in the book of Ecclesiastes;
Better what the eye sees
Ecclesiastes 6:9 NIV
than the roving of the appetite.
This too is meaningless,
a chasing after the wind.
Seek after this true contentment and happiness which is only found in the Lord.
May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’
Love
Rosemary
Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What are you seeking after?
How does social media, advertising and the enticement of goods distract you from pursuing God?
What can you do to put God first in your life?
3 Comments
Chrys
+Thank you Rosemary for you word today. Which has spoken directly to me, yes I have an addiction to shopping for clothes and shoes etc.., to make me happy for only a moment. I will pray to the Holy Spirit for the gift of restraint , I have not done this before. I pray that I can seek true contentment in Our Lord. I am lonely, in deep sorrow and unhappy and have been using these things to make me happy (so I thought) for a moment. Please help me Jesus I pray to change and to fall in love with You. God is showing me that this has been my stumbling block from getting close to Him and making Him first. It has been a crutch for me for a long time now and I pray for the Holy Spirit to help me overcome this addiction. In Jesus precious name. Amen.
Thank you Rosemary for your sharing today, God Bless you and your ministry.
Valerie Lack
Dear Rosemary
I think that I was fortunate, in that when my husband and I married, we had absolutely nothing, but debt on a piece of land.
Eventually we built on that land. We have five children and two were born in the same year, so there wasn’t’ any money spare for anything but the essentials. It becomes a habit not to spend needlessly. Our fortnightly wage rarely lasted a fortnight. We really struggled for a long time. We learned the art of economising. At the time it felt terrible, but in retrospect we were blessed
Rosemary
Praying for you, God is the overcomer of all things in our lives so lean totally on Him. I’m so glad that the holy Spirit desires to draw you closer to the Father the Son and Spirit. Much love