Roses are beautiful and smell terrific, but, the thorns can take away from their beauty. Ever try to cut your own rose from a bush? Some are very thorny while others are not so bad as long as you handle them correctly. Move your finger in the wrong direction and OUCH! You want to give up and forget about enjoying the beauty of the rose.
Likewise, there is a thorn that can come with contentment and will rob us of the joy of being content. In Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 to 34, Jesus talks about this thorn called anxiousness/worry. This thorn gets our eyes off of what God has done for us and focused on what is going on. We no longer enjoy His provision. Instead, we strive to take care of things by our own means.
The problem with that is when we are unable to fulfill what we think needs to be done we panic. We forget to go to Him because we are doing things under our own strength which is extremely limited.
When we worry, we invite tomorrow’s trouble into to our heart and there is othing we can do to take care of what will happen. We can only control our reaction to the here and now. Being anxious for what might happen in the future will only still our peace and contentment for today. Think about it today has enough stress of its own we don’t need to invite more in.
So the key to contentment is found in verse 33,
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
By seeking God our focus is on the One who can provide all that we need and we are not distracted by what may or may not happen.
Bonnie Sue Writes 