A cloud.....

....the size of a man's hand!!!
 

 1 Kings 18:44 (NLT)

Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.”  Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, ‘Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry, the rain will stop you!’.

As the sun went behind the clouds....I jokingly made the comment that I was looking in the sky for a cloud the size of a man's hand.    

It's sooooo hot here....and soooooo dry.....our grass is getting crunchy!!!  I'm having to water our outside flowers at least every other day....and also we're watering our little patch of garden so we can continue to get maters....and hopefully we'll be able to salvage our watermelons!

So many times, we complain about too much rain...or too little rain...or it's too hot...or my bones can't take this cold.  So often, we just want things to be DIFFERENT....and just can't....or won't....be content with how our lives are NOW!


And....sometimes.....we don't even know what we want....we just know that we're not happy with the way things are!


Maybe a nicer, or newer car, or a new house, or the latest cell phone, or newest gadget....or another piece of pie, another bowl of ice cream....maybe one of these things would help make us happier!!!
Maybe if we could loose weight....or if we had more money....or our  children behaved better....or we just had more hours in the day to get everything accomplished....then, we'd be happy!!!

How often are we completely satisfied?

I would venture to answer that statement with "RARELY".

 

Discontentment isn't something that's just relevant for us today....remember how unhappy the Israelites were after God brought them out of Egypt?  They complained and murmured and grumbled and griped about something constantly....and as bad as it was in Egypt....they even longed to go back there because the food was better!!!  Oh, how soon they forgot about how the Egyptians caused them to suffer!!!

 I did a bit of research on the word "content" in the Bible....both in the KJV and the NLT...and want to share with y'all the 2 verses that stood out to me the most.....

1) Mark 15:15 (KJV)

And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. 

Isn't it so sad that in order to pacify the crowd.....Pilate released the evil Barabbas from prison and allowed him to go free.....and gave the people our innocent Jesus to do with as they pleased?

2) 1 Timothy 6:7-9 (NLT) 

After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it.  So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.

 But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

God made us.....and knows us even better than we know ourselves.  He knew that we would not be a content and happy people.....so He inspired scripture to teach us that contentment is something we need to strive for.

As I started typing these words, the Holy Spirit directed my thoughts in a different direction than I hadn't originally planned to take.  So....obviously He wanted me to do a bit of research on being content.  

Hope it helps you as much as it did me!!!

Thursday Blessings to each of 'ya!!!

In His Most Precious Love....and with mine!!!

*Edited to add.....

.....once again, God showed me that I wrote just what He asked.  I had written this post yesterday afternoon.....then, Pastor Jack spoke about discontentment during our Wednesday evening Bible study!!!   So....without a doubt.....I needed to study up on being content....and see where I'm coming up short!!!

God....YOU NEVER cease to AMAZE me!!!