Sharing Thoughts - Contentment

Although I was fighting for my contentment in singleness...this message is very universal and can apply to any situation:

As each of you know, I've been celebrating in my new found "contentment" of being single. My new found space is primarily due to getting a biblical perspective on what it means to be content in all things and anxious for nothing. I used to think that to be content meant that I'd have to be "void" of a desire or "indifferent" to the outcome of that desire. However, what I've recently discovered is that to be content means to be joyful where you are and knowing that God will deliver and bring to pass those desires in our heart. See, it's not anxiousness or fretting that gets God's attention, it's our faith. Anxiousness and faith cannot co-exist together; one will cancel out the other. We can choose to have faith and not be anxious. Yes, it's as simple as making a choice.

Around 9:00 p.m last night (Thursday, Feb 22) those old feelings of anxiousness tried to creep in. Within minutes of their arrival, I began to feel a shift in my emotions, thoughts, and joy. I started speaking God's promises over my life and proclaiming that I will be joyful in my current state because God is faithful. I had to talk to myself (verbally and mentally) throughout the night and even this morning when I woke up. The battle got more and more intense from last night to this morning (Friday, Feb 23) and suddenly the following thoughts started to invade my mind "see, you aren't content. You spoke too soon, you celebrated too soon…etc etc." How-be-ever , I continued to "cast down every thing that exalted itself against the Word of God, and brought down every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" – 2 Corinthians 10:5. In His faithfulness, wisdom began to flow as I brushed my teeth. Here's the wisdom word I received today:

Matthew 12:43-45 (feel free to read it for your pleasure…I love the Message Bible's version of this text)

In a nutshell, the parable talks about when a person is delivered or grows up in an area, those old habits, mindsets, spirits, etc leave and tries to find somewhere else to live. Once the old habits realize that there's no where else for them to go, they come back to their old home ( i.e. you) and find it all cleaned up and vacant. This is good news to the old habits so they run out and gather seven times more spirits and they all come back to live in the new cleaned, vacant you. Why is vacant in bold? There is a difference between abstinence and deliverance. A vacant space represents someone who's abstaining from whatever those old habits were. Abstinence can have the appearance of deliverance because those old spirits are out searching for a new home; HOWEVER…they will come back to see if their old home ( i.e. your mind) is available. If those old habits find the old home vacant and available for them, then that person was not delivered, but rather abstaining. How do you know you're delivered?

True deliverance represents a trading in of your mind for God's mind, your thoughts for God's thoughts, and your desires for God's desires. You don't give up something and not replace it. Deliverance is proven when (not if) those old things come back and find their old home fully furnished, therefore not providing any room for them or seven of their friends to return. Those old thoughts tried to find space in every room…my thoughts, my joy, my emotions, my declarations, every room of my soul. However, every door they tried to enter, they were greeted with the Word of God, the thoughts of God, the peace of God, the promises of God. I traded in the old for the new. Deliverance doesn't mean those old things won't try to come back…deliverance means – COME ON BABY, THERE'S NO ROOM IN THE INN!!! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so (I used to love that song by Virtue…and of course I love the scripture too - Psalm 107:2).

Barbara