In today’s sermon, my pastor had a great message and it revolved around contentment and he said that nothing on this earth will ever make us content.
We spend our days trying to fill the void in our lives with, things, possessions and wishing that others would do things differently in order for us to be happy. But as most of us know or experience… when we focus on things outside of us to change in order for us to be happy, we spend most of our days… very unhappy.
My paster went on to say that Jesus is the only thing that will ever bring us true contentment. That by allowing Jesus into our lives and letting the perfecting process take its course, we will eventually get to the point where we will be content. I am guessing that this will not happen until we either die or Jesus returns, whichever comes first.
So what do we do in the mean time…
1. Remember that everything that is going on in our lives and around this world, is exactly as God wants it to be. This includes the good times as well as the bad.
The bad times are there to teach us. If we are uncomfortable with things that are going on in our lives, there are some changes that we need to make in our lives to get past these situations. Either a habitual way we are thinking or an habitual action that we engage in that needs to change.
Habits are a tough thing and there are some habitual thinking processes that we have that are working inside of our heads that we are not aware of. And if we can uncover these thinking habits, they could open doors in our lives that could change us forever. Make sure to check out http://www.habitbustingsystem.com
2. Bad times don’t last forever… and neither do the good times.
The unpleasant times in our lives will go away, they always do. Most of the time they start to disappear when we make changes in our actions and thinking.
The key to the bad times is to pay attention to the pattern that occurs when these bad times start to happen in our lives. They are often proceeded by things that we are thinking and doing. Let’s look at a simple bad scenario for a second.
Let’s look at the hangover. A terrible headache, with nausea, that often last for a day. As this is a very uncomfortable situation it is proceeded by drinking a lot of alcoholic beverages.
If this happens often to you, you may want to seek professional help.
If you don’t want it to happen anymore, you simply stop drinking alcoholic beverages.
This is my personal opinion on why good times don’t last as long as we would like them too, when things are going well it is very easy to forget where these blessings come from and when we stop being grateful, we are given a little reminder. And this is how the cycles go.
3. It is never about US, but is is ALWAYS about us being of service to others.
The more we positively serves others, the happier we seem to be. And when we align our natural talents and abilities in the service we provide, it never seems like work.
Another reason why a negative cycle will happen is because we start to focus on what we are not getting. We start to look at what others have and start to get a little jealous, or say things to ourselves, “What have they done to be able to get that.” Or something to that effect.
If we maintain our focus on what we think and what we do to serve others, the natural by product is to get what we want.
But when we focus on the reward, before the service is provided, it violates the natural law that God has put in place.
Our happiness can only come from within us. If we are not content with who we are and what we are doing, regardless of what others do, we will never be happy.
As Always, Here’s to Your LifetoSuccess,
God Bless You,
John Clark