Anxiety or Contentment? What’s Your Choice?
2009 has been an unusually challenging year for many. Along with a severe, sustained recession, there has been unprecedented political, social and spiritual upheaval across America. In spite of these issues, our God reigns! Let’s take this well-deserved pause from the action to take a deep breath and deeply consider before God how we’re doing in ordering our priorities and tending to His resources according to His plan and purpose and ask ourselves, Will we start 2010 Anxious or Content?
Anxiety; a state of being anxious, apprehensive, concerned, or a mental condition arising from fear or solicitude.”
Sound familiar? Anxiety is almost an accepted norm for today’s business owner. “Anxious about what,” you ask? Nothing really. Nothing, except, people problems, money problems, marriage problems, kid problems, tax problems, profit problems, government red tape, competition, and getting old, fat, and bald. Nothing much.
The arenas change, our lives progress, we move forward, but problems are ever with us.
It really shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus told us that, “In this world you WILL have tribulation (another word for problems).” The truth is that there is nothing that we can do to avoid problems. They are a forever, integral part of life.
Besides, the problems are not the problem. Our reaction to the problems are the problem. A wise man once said, “The problems of life don’t make me who I am, they reveal who I am.”
Perhaps for a Christian it would be more accurate to say, “The problems of life don’t make me who I am, they reveal WHOSE I am.”
A scripture verse that has had special meaning to many in this particular regard is Philippians 4:6. The verse says, “Be anxious for NOTHING.”
The verse goes on to say, “but in EVERYTHING through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your HEARTS and MINDS through Christ Jesus.”
There is a key to this truth that is often overlooked. It’s the part that says, “WITH THANKSGIVING.” We focus on the praying and supplicating and tend to forget about the thanksgiving.
You see, anxiety and true thanksgiving cannot exist in the same place at the same time. Be honest, you who are anxious, how much time do you spend giving thanks to God for what He has already done and given you, compared to the time you spend in asking Him to deal with some problem? How much do we just take for granted?
We can make a big start by choosing to be content. Contentment isn’t something that happens “to” us, it is a choice we make for ourselves. Paul said that he had learned to be content in riches or poverty. We can learn it too.
Contentment and thankfulness go hand in hand because thankfulness helps us to recognize how much we have already.
Anxiety or Contentment? What is your choice?
“Remember, if you can’t be content with what you have, you will never be content with what you are trying to get.”
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