Feeling Restless? Discover How To Find Contentment In God!

Hi mama! Today I’m sharing an article I wrote on finding contentment in God.

In this article, I share the reason we’re often restless, why it’s important to find contentment in God and how we can find contentment in God. When we do, we’ll experience God’s rest instead of restlessness. God’s peace instead of turmoil. God’s joy instead of disappointment.

Why We’re Restless And Discontent

Discontent is rooted in desire. We feel discontent when there is an unmet desire within us. 

Yet, the problem with discontent is not desire, but disordered desire. 

It’s when we crave what cannot satisfy, instead of turning to the only One who can. It’s when we look to accumulation and accomplishment for fulfilment, instead of turning to the God of all fulfilment. It’s when we anchor our joy to shifting sands, instead of finding our joy in the Rock of Ages. 

Indeed, the reason that as people, we live in a constant quest for more is that we were made to have our deepest desires met in God. 

Dallas Willard put it this way: 

“Desire is infinite partly because we were made by God, made for God, made to need God, and made to run on God. We can be satisfied only by the one who is infinite, eternal, and able to supply all our needs; we are only at home in God. When we fall away from God, the desire for the infinite remains, but it is displaced upon things that will certainly lead to destruction.”

God made us for Him. To have our infinite desire fully met in Him. God wants us to love Him first and foremost — before all else. To know that He is everything. Because it’s true. He is everything. 

Why It’s Important To Find Contentment In God

Hustling around buying stuff to gain happiness and hurrying around doing stuff to gain worth, deny the Gospel to the core. They deny the reality that all joy and fulfilment come from the Father. They deny the reality that we have worth because we were made in the image of God. 

Jesus calls us to find our worth in Him, not in our career accomplishments. Jesus calls us to steward what He has set before us, not to pine for other people’s lives. Jesus calls us to find pleasure in His gifts in the present, not to crave accumulation in the future.

Nevertheless, living a discontent and restless life is also a practical problem for us as Jesus apprentices. Living this way actually prevents us from walking with Jesus in the life He has for us. 

Jesus did not hustle around while on earth. Jesus did not restlessly pine for that which He did not have.

Jesus engaged with and enjoyed God’s gifts in the present. Jesus engaged with people and with God slowly and intentionally, because He was content in the moment. And now seated in Heaven, Jesus invites us to be His hands and feet  in this world and walk like He walked while on earth. To engage. To enjoy. To testify of the God from whom all blessings flow. 

If you’ve been experiencing discontent and restlessness, no shame. God’s grace is enough.

But don’t stay there! Let’s look at how we can find true contentment.

How To Find True Contentment 

We find true contentment, when we surrender to God as our everything and renounce all else.

It’s here that we can find joy, whether in situations of financial abundance, whether in situations of financial lack. Whether our calendars are full of exciting activities, whether we are experiencing seasons of quiet routine. Whether we spend a lot of time with our loved ones, or whether we spend more time with people we’re not close to. 

The truth is that when we experience restlessness and pin our joy to certain circumstances, we fail to see that the answer to our desires isn’t out there.

The answer is Jesus. Here and now. 

Sin is often the root obstacle keeping us away from enjoying God and being truly content. Whether that sin is us striving to achieve worldly success instead of pursuing relationship with our Father. Whether that sin is us complaining about our lot in life, instead of being grateful for God’s blessings in Christ Jesus.

So… in order to find true contentment, we need to turn to God, confess and relinquish our sin, surrender to His will, and abide in Him.

You see, contentment is not just about buying less stuff, embracing a simple lifestyle, or removing clutter from our homes. (Even the pagans can do that!)

Rather, contentment is a heart posture of love for and trust in God, which then leads to a simple and joyful life.

What Contentment Does In Us

When we have a heart posture of contentment, we’re able to remove clutter from our homes, because our security is not in our stuff but in God.

When we’re content, we’re able to embrace a simple lifestyle that testifies to God being our treasure, not our experiences.

When our heart is satisfied in God, we’re able to enjoy God’s gifts with open hands, because He has filled us to overflowing. Indeed, when we’re content, we are able to enjoy those gifts both deeply and freely — with no strings attached.

With true contentment, there is no insatiable craving for more, a fearful holding on to God’s blessings with closed fists, or a restless state of “what’s next?” 

Rather, we delight in God’s gifts as those who trust in the God who gives and takes away, according to the riches of His wisdom. And when God does take away, there remains the trust that His love never changes, our worth is found in Him, and our heart’s deepest desire can only be fully met in Him.

Therefore…

contentment is being able to hold God’s gifts lightly, yet enjoy them fully. It’s being able to desire certain outcomes, yet not see them as the solution to our heart yearnings. It’s being able to let good things go, because God has taken over our deepest affections. 

When we do so, something amazing happens! God enables us to notice the good and beautiful all around us. The patterns of rain showering the ground on a cold autumn day. The scent of our neighbour’s lavender flowers wafting up in the morning breeze. The intricate beauty of a fluttering butterfly’s wings as we walk along our favourite nature trail. 

When we’re content, we’re able to delight in things we don’t own, but we get to use: books from the library, a beautiful park in our city, our best friend’s log fire. We accept them all as gifts from our Good Father because we know that even what we do own does not ultimately belong to us. We were born with nothing and we will leave with nothing. 

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