From Discontentment to Gratitude
By Cheri Hudspith, oneLifemaps Facilitator
Related to the Reviewing My Days Map, Desires & Longings Map, and Valley Experiences Map from Listen To My Life: Maps for Recognizing and Responding to God in My Story by Sibyl Towner and Sharon Swing.
Last fall, I was troubled by the fact that I could not arrive at a contented place in a very big part of my life. I wanted desperately to live without the tension and burden of discontentment. I noticed that when I talked about the future, my voice was filled with angst and struggle. It was not the voice of a trusting daughter. I desire to be a trusting daughter of the Most High God. I started asking the Lord to show me the cause of my discontentment.
Apparently, this was something the Lord was pretty happy to supply an answer to. Through a series of events - a retreat in Colorado, questions asked by others in a bible study on Colossians, a serious physical trial being faced by a friend and a book called Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, I discovered a hard truth. The Lord both gently and firmly with His still small voice said, “Cheri, you are demanding. In the places where you choose not to be grateful in all circumstances, you only know discontentment.”
Through the use of the Reviewing My Days Map, I have discovered that God is moving in this area of my life where I have been discontent. He's just not doing it the way I want Him to do it or at the speed I want. My arrogance in this way of thinking is so profoundly heart breaking. Who am I to tell God how or when to do anything?! Now, it is more clear to me why I have resisted the Desires & Longings Map. I was afraid of being disappointed and being tempted to get bossy with God. I instinctively knew that I would be in potential conflict with God when I dared to give voice to what I desire and long for.
I am now making use of the Valley Experiences Map. What events in my life or ways of seeing the world need to be reframed by truth - truths about God and truths about me? While praying through this map, I'm having a series of new realizations that are helping me understand how my past hurts contribute to my tendencies toward ungrateful discontentment.
God has done a work in me. I can honestly say that I have moved from discontentment to contentment, angst to peace, bossiness to submissiveness and ungratefulness to gratitude. I have known the deep love of the Lord for me in the midst of the revelation of truth. I'm so grateful He heard my cries and has answered them. Praise be to God!
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION: “Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.” 1 Thes. 5:17-19 NLT
QUESTION: Will you trust the Lord to show you where you struggle to be content or grateful? Are you being invited to discover how to be grateful in all circumstances?
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