You might think that I have gone extreme bonkers on this. When you think of being content there is just peace, happiness, satisfaction… What could be so extreme about that? Check out Psalm 16:11, and we will see what extreme contentment is.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The fist thing we notice is when God is leading you the stress level goes down. Where does it say that? Obvious when He is leading you in your daily life as to what you need to do it is a ton less stressful than having a big to-do list and only knocking out 1 or 3, if lucky, and adding about 5 more to it. Pushing that list off to the next day plus what you already had down for that day and the snowball effect starts and you feel like you never achieve your goals for the day.
Next, when we are in His presence our joy is fulfilled. Here is where we dig into the meaning of the words. For contentment Dictionary.com says;
noun satisfaction; ease of mind.
nounthe emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation:
noun comfort, happiness
Joy :
noun great happiness, pleasure
So, contentment and joy have to deal with happiness, gladness, and pleasure. One thing about joy, it is GREAT in quantity of happiness and pleasure. As you see from some of the other synonyms it is as though it is running over. Did you catch where joy is found? In His presence. When we worship Him, we enter into His presence. It is very hard to be down and out when you are worshipping the Lord. You can’t stand before the Lord and worship Him without being filled with joy.
Finally, when we seek the Lord to plan our days and having worship music on throughout the day to keep us in His presence with extreme contentment – JOY!
Bonnie Sue Writes 