Contentment

Psalm 81

English Standard Version (ESV)

To the choirmaster: according to ^(A)The Gittith.^[a] Of ^(B)Asaph.

81 ^(C)Sing aloud to God our strength;
    ^(D)shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
² Raise a song; sound ^(E)the tambourine,
    ^(F)the sweet lyre with ^(G)the harp.
³ Blow the trumpet at ^(H)the new moon,
    at the full moon, on our feast day.

⁴ For it is a statute for Israel,
    a rule^[b] of the God of Jacob.
⁵ He made it ^(I)a decree in ^(J)Joseph
    when he ^(K)went out over^[c] the land of Egypt.
^(L)I hear a language ^(M)I had not known:
⁶ “I ^(N)relieved your^[d] shoulder of ^(O)the burden;
    your hands were freed from the basket.
⁷ In distress you ^(P)called, and I delivered you;
    I ^(Q)answered you in the secret place of thunder;
    I ^(R)tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
^8 (S)Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
⁹ There shall be no ^(T)strange god among you;
    you shall not bow down to a ^(U)foreign god.
^10 (V)I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
    ^(W)Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

¹¹ “But my people did not listen to my voice;
    Israel ^(X)would not submit to me.
¹² So I ^(Y)gave them over to their ^(Z)stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own ^(AA)counsels.
^13 (AB)Oh, that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would ^(AC)walk in my ways!
¹⁴ I would soon subdue their enemies
    and ^(AD)turn my hand against their foes.
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would ^(AE)cringe toward him,
    and their fate would last forever.
¹⁶ But he would feed you^[e] with ^(AF)the finest of the wheat,
    and with ^(AG)honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+81&version=ESV)

Contentment comes when we put our whole entire trust in the Lord.  There is a difference between complacency and contentment.  Joseph was snatched from his homeland, from his family and placed in a foreign country where he became a leader.  It did not come without heartache but yet he trusted God.  It would have been so easy to turn from God when his family rejected him and sold him.  Yet, he was content to do what the Lord called Him to do.  He wasn’t complacent though.  He didn’t do what he needed to do just to survive, he put his entire being into what God had called him to do.  Even in jail he found the place of contentment.  He ministered to others by serving them gladly and found favor with his jailor.

 Contrast Joseph with the other Israelites in Egypt.  They became complacent to the point that they carried the baskets of bricks and hauled heavy loads on their shoulders because it was their way of life.  They didn’t even seem to think that God might want to deliver them from this.  They appeared to have accepted this way of life because even while wandering in the desert they thought it would be better to return to the enslavement of Egypt than to be enslaved in the desert by the Lord.  I for one would rather work for the Lord more than for any human being yet I sometimes forget that God has placed me in certain places for a reason and I need to be content and know that He is the One in control.  A lesson that would have been wise for the Israelites to heed to.  Somehow Joseph learned this yet we know he had heartache when he finally got to see his family once again yet he trusted God through it all.

This is something I need to learn today. Being content is an act of showing God that you trust Him fully.  No matter the situation you find yourself in trusting God for deliverance and remembering He is in control will lead you to the road of contentment.  God wants us to trust Him and He wants us to listen to Him.  We can listen to His small voice as we seek Him and know that He is God and the fruit of that will be contentment.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila