Romans 8:28

 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, 

for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 ESV 

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Please join me this week in praying for contentment for ourselves and others. May we rest in the hope of Jesus Christ. Pray that those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ come to know Him. Pray that we recognize the daily blessings that God bestows on us. He provides for all of our needs. Let us be thankful for having food, water, shelter, and clothing. Praise God for His unfailing love and grace.

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

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Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #bibleverse #bible #contentment #peace #hope #prayer #faith #love #sufficient #needs #ChristAlone #Romans

Matthew 6:33

 

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 

and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33 ESV 

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Please join me this week in praying for contentment for ourselves and others. May we rest in the hope of Jesus Christ. Pray that those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ come to know Him. Pray that we recognize the daily blessings that God bestows on us. He provides for all of our needs. Let us be thankful for having food, water, shelter, and clothing. Praise God for His unfailing love and grace.

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @7DegreesOfMe
Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #bibleverse #bible #contentment #peace #hope #prayer #faith #love #sufficient #needs #ChristAlone #Matthew

Seek contentment

 

When I graduated from high school, I had my whole life planned out. Unfortunately, I didn't involve God in my plans and actually, turned away from Him when I got to college. From there, my life was a downward spiral to destruction. It weighed on me for over twenty-five years until I reconnected with God. That connection made a huge difference in my life, but I still struggled with negative feelings from my past.

     It wasn't until I found a remarkable counselor that I was finally able to work through my past and move on.

     I've heard people say lately: 

• "I don't need a therapist. I just need to pray more and read the Bible more." 
• "I'll be fine. I'm giving it all up to God." 
• "Time heals all wounds." 

     All of those things help and are a great first line of defense, but what if God wants you to seek counsel? What if He directed you here to plant the seed? God gives people the gift and education to help others for a reason. 

     So if you are struggling right now. If you cannot possibly be content because of something happening in your life, or in your past, please consider seeking the counsel of those who can help you.

     Your church may have people to help you. But, if not, here are some resources.

Faithful Counseling (Christian organization)

K-Love (Yes, the music station. They have pastors on staff to help you.)

Psychology Today (If using this link, I encourage you to find a Christian counselor and one who does EMDR - at least, it worked for me.) 

The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Psalm 34:10 ESV

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Please join me this week in praying for contentment for ourselves and others. May we rest in the hope of Jesus Christ. Pray that those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ come to know Him. Pray that we recognize the daily blessings that God bestows on us. He provides for all of our needs. Let us be thankful for having food, water, shelter, and clothing. Praise God for His unfailing love and grace.

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @7DegreesOfMe
Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #bibleverse #bible #contentment #peace #hope #prayer #faith #love #sufficient #needs #ChristAlone #counselor #therapist #seek #Psalms

True contentment

 

Take a moment to think about your own level of contentment. Do you have all that you need? Do you have the basics of life (not the extras that we can all live without)? Do they bring you contentment? Satisfaction?
     It's okay if the answer is 'no.' We're human, and it's our human nature, or rather our sinful nature that keeps us wanting more. Or is it?
     The poorest people of Lima, Peru live in what we would consider squalor. Their houses are built out of whatever materials they can find. They don't have clean drinking water. There's trash everywhere. Yet, they're happy and content. If you were to tell them they're poor, they wouldn't know what you're talking about. They may covet their neighbor's electricity (and may take it upon themselves to tap into it), but that's the extent of their "want."*
     Every time I think about them, I feel ashamed of my own occasional dissatisfaction with life. I have God in my life; I don't need anything or anyone else. But, there are times I find myself longing for this or that. Sometimes the longing is over a relationship, or having time, or needing direction and I take all of those types of things to God. Sometimes it's more materialistic like escaping to a foreign country. That I just keep to myself because I realize it's not a need.
     Whatever is keeping you from contentment, examine it and then let it go. Count your blessings. Praise God for His mercy, love, and grace.

The Bible verse of the day just popped up on my phone, and how fitting:
   Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24 ESV

I absolutely love what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians. It really stops me in my tracks and makes me realize how difficult his life was, yet he said time and time again that he considered his life gain. Dwell on verse 10 below.

6 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
          “In a favorable time I listened to you,
               and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 ESV

*This description is from what I've learned from Missionaries who've been in Lima and from the photos I saw of the area where they were serving.

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Please join me this week in praying for contentment for ourselves and others. May we rest in the hope of Jesus Christ. Pray that those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ come to know Him. Pray that we recognize the daily blessings that God bestows on us. He provides for all of our needs. Let us be thankful for having food, water, shelter, and clothing. Praise God for His unfailing love and grace.

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @7DegreesOfMe
Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #bibleverse #bible #contentment #peace #hope #prayer #faith #love #sufficient #needs #ChristAlone #poor #humannature #Corinthians #GospelOfMark #want #covet

God has a sense of humor

A little joke from God, and a lesson in waiting on Him.

Every morning I pray for words to share with you, but sometimes they don't come in the timeframe I need them to and I get impatient. This morning was one of those times. I got frustrated and decided to just post a Bible verse.
     I chose Philippians 4:19. Scrolling through the images already created with this verse (on the YouVersion app), I realized that I have used all of them in the past, and almost stopped to look for a different verse. Lo and behold, the very last one was the image above. Notice the pencils? God provided a short anecdote (that's what this is, lol) that fits into my allotted writing time, that brings Him glory as supplying all of our needs. It's also a lesson in waiting on Him and trusting in Him.
     God is so cool! I love seeing Him at work.

And my God will supply every need of yours

according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19 ESV

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Please join me this week in praying for contentment for ourselves and others. May we rest in the hope of Jesus Christ. Pray that those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ come to know Him. Pray that we recognize the daily blessings that God bestows on us. He provides for all of our needs. Let us be thankful for having food, water, shelter, and clothing. Praise God for His unfailing love and grace.

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @7DegreesOfMe
Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #bibleverse #bible #contentment #peace #hope #prayer #faith #love #sufficient #needs #ChristAlone #amwriting #patience #Philippians

A senior moment, a Psalm, and a life well lived

 

I need to make a correction with yesterday's post. I started out talking about 'comfort' but then switched to 'contentment.' We talked about contentment in Women's Group, but the subject of Sunday's sermon was comfort. Somehow, I meshed the two together. Like I've said in the past, I sometimes still experience these chemo-brain moments. (Maybe I should face the fact that they're really senior moments.) 

     Speaking of senior moments, for the life of me, I can't think of one thing that I was going to write about this week. Yesterday I was full of ideas, but did I write them down? No. No, I did not.

     So, I paused and read Psalm 37:1-11 ESV:

Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.

You can read the rest of the Psalm here.

     This whole passage describes what we need to do to be content. How often do we look at others and wish we had what they had? It doesn't even have to be material things. I used to be jealous of a woman who didn't have to work. She wasn't a 'housewife' either. Her husband worked full-time, took care of the house, cooked, ran errands, and did the laundry. She was free to do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. What I didn't see was the downside of that. They had no relationship to speak of. She wasted most of her life sleeping. Now, because of how she lived, she has all of these health issues and can't do much of anything even if she wanted to. Why would I want any of that?
     I want my life to have meaning and the only way to do that is to serve the Lord. That means sharing the gospel, praying, reading my bible, reaching out to others. God has a reason for putting us in the situations He puts us in. It may be so that we meet that one person who needs to hear our story. That person then may reach ten people, and each of those people may reach thirty people. We may not know how God used us to plant seeds until we get to Heaven but we can be satisfied and content knowing that our individual lives each have meaning. Pray without ceasing that His will be done. Then, you will know contentment.

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Please join me this week in praying for contentment for ourselves and others. May we rest in the hope of Jesus Christ. Pray that those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ come to know Him. Pray that we recognize the daily blessings that God bestows on us. He provides for all of our needs. Let us be thankful for having food, water, shelter, and clothing. Praise God for His unfailing love and grace.

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @7DegreesOfMe
Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #bibleverse #bible #contentment #peace #hope #prayer #faith #love #sufficient #needs #ChristAlone #correction #retraction #Psalms #purpose

Where to find contentment

 

During Women's Group yesterday morning, we landed on 1 Timothy 6:6 (and beyond) which prompted a conversation about comfort. Later, it turned out that the entire sermon was focused on comfort, too. So, this is our topic for the week. It's another area that could take us to so many different places and lead us to pray for so many different people, going through a variety of situations that are anything but comfort-giving.

    What 1 Timothy 6:6 is talking about, though, is being content when our basic needs are met. John MacArthur wrote: "This Gr. word means, "self-sufficiency," and was used by Stoic philosophers to describe a person who was unflappable and unmoved by external cirucumstances. Christians are to be satisfied and sufficient, and not to seek for more than what God has already given them. He is the source of true contentment..." *
     People talked about finding contentment in their spouses, in their homes, with their lives. I personally don't find it in any of those places. I don't think I've ever been content in those areas. It's not that I seek something extraordinary--maybe I'm just searching, praying for contentment that others seem to have. But then, isn't that covetous?
     Our Women's Group leader then said that "My hope is in Christ alone. Everyone else will let us down." That was kind of my 'aha' moment of the day. It was as if God was answering all of the thoughts swirling through my mind during the discussion: Christ alone. Everything else is temporal. Everything else is insignificant.

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 ESV

*MacArthur, John (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible, New King James version.

     Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville, TN.

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Please join me this week in praying for contentment for ourselves and others. May we rest in the hope of Jesus Christ. Pray that those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ come to know Him. Pray that we recognize the daily blessings that God bestows on us. He provides for all of our needs. Let us be thankful for having food, water, shelter, and clothing. Praise God for His unfailing love and grace.

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @7DegreesOfMe
Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #bibleverse #bible #contentment #peace #hope #prayer #faith #love #sufficient #needs #ChristAlone