I find the words contentment and restlessness to be very difficult to distinguish between.
The definitions are:
contentment: Desiring no more than what one has; satisfied. (lack of contentment would be of course wanting more than you have or not satisfied)
Restlessness: characterized by or showing inability to remain at rest: arestless mood; unquiet or uneasy, as a person, the mind, or the heart.
What I find odd is that we as Christians throw the word “contentment” around quite flippantly. It has become this “buzz” word that is vague to most people. What does it mean to be content in the Lord? If we go with the definition doesn’t that really suggest that we should be just happy with what we have and not really interested in wanting more. We are satisfied with what we have been given and it’s good enough for me.
I have given a lot of thought to this lately. I think ultimately we need to be content in God and thats it. I think placing too much stake in contentment for anything else either sets us up for disappointment or paralyzes us from being creative or forging ahead with dreams.
That’s where the word restless comes into play. Sometimes we find ourselves in life no longer content with what or where things are going. No longer satisfied with our location, money, church, job, etc. So we go back and pray that God would help us with our lack of contentment.
This is a good thing because we do want to drill into our heads that everything is but a vapor and in the end God is sovereign. It is also a bad thing, because sometimes it is not a lack of contentment that is the issue it is restlessness. Sometimes God is tugging at our hearts to dream, to move, to change, to create.
I don’t think it is easy to decipher the difference if it is lack of contentment or God making us restless. That is where prayer and fasting come into play.
We as christians need to make sure we are deciphering between the two as we move through our daily lives because God could be tugging at our hearts and itching to do big things thru us and we in turn could be stifling His great work because we are too concerned that our lack of contentment is a sure sign we are no longer relying on God.
Be still and know…it is a verse about clear cut clarity. Make sure you seek it out.
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