Calm & Content

Raise your hand if you feel calm these days?  I sure don't and yet God has asked us to be calm and content through all things.  Not always so easy.  But God tells us in Luke 12:25-26, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?".

Worry and chaos is just like this virus we are all fighting, a plague, a pandemic, a sickness.  And we as humans let that plague win.  We spend our time obsessing about what coulda, shoulda, woulda been instead of resting calmly and trusting Jesus with every worry, every fear, every everything.

It is so hard to just give it to God.  It's a constant struggle.  I am the biggest failure when it comes to this.  I like to hand it all over to God and then pick it up again if I don't feel he is moving fast enough to fix it.  Or I pick it up again if I think I've found a better way to get from Point A to Point B.  And yet, if I would just be calm and content and let go to God, HE can and will handle it far better than I ever could have.

We have to just be content right here and right now to just let God lead through it all.  We are not to allow ourselves to be lead astray by tempting promises or our own strategic plans but we are to be like sheep and follow our Shepherd.

Jesus tells us in John 10:27-28 (NKJV), "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they

follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand".  Jesus is our Great Shepherd and he is aware and fully involved with all of His sheep.  We need to be content following the Shepherd and trusting Him to keep us safe.  Just as a shepherd in the field would do, Jesus does even more so for us, His children.

We can't find contentment in things or people or experiences.  They are fun but not life lasting.  The contentment that our world provides is not as fulfilling as the contentment that Jesus freely gives.  And we can't let our circumstances dictate our contentment and happiness.  We can't allow ourselves to stray away from our Shepherd-King who is there to protect us and guide us through each day.

Luci Swindoll made a perfect statement for just this post, she said, "The key to contentment is to consider.  Consider who you are and be satisfied with that.  Consider what you have and be satisfied with that.  Consider what God's doing and be satisfied with that".  I have this quote written and taped to the mirror on my vanity.  We need to look around our lives and just be content.  We need to look around our circumstances and be calm.  God can and will provide the calm in the storm, the peace in the unknown and the contentment to accept it all.

As we are living life very differently these days, I ask that you would take a moment to allow the Shepherd to guide you away from worry and fear that can alter your mood, affect your relationships and your health and instead walk with the Shepherd-King into contentment.  Allow Him who loves you to calm your world.  Trust Him who has good planned for you. 

We, as children of the king, were never designed to live independently from our Shepherd.  Jesus tells us that we live best when we follow Him.  In the wise words of Martin Luther, "Pray, and let God worry".

Father, we come to You today prepared to follow You our Shepherd.  We know that you do not desire for your children to worry.  You want us to live a life of calm and contentment through all things.  Lord, I ask that you bring your peace to anyone needing it today.  I ask that as a nation, we would follow you in sheep-like fashion knowing that You do not disappoint.  When we feel uncertainty mounting, please remind us that we need to Let Go and Let God.  Amen.