Episode 2: Transcript
Welcome to Contentment Matters! I am your host Cindy Schwerdtfeger. If you’ve tried searching for contentment in many directions and have yet to be satisfied with the outcome, you have come to the right place. If you missed episode one, be sure to check it out later. I share my journey to contentment, the name of the podcast Contentment Matters, and the basic principles behind the podcast.
Today, I will share more about what contentment is, why it is essential to all of us, and why it matters. Then I will give the insider scoop on what topics we will explore in the weeks and months ahead. Let’s dig in.
I believe that we all want to have contentment and satisfaction in this life. We want to have a purpose here on earth and desire life to have meaning. That is why we get up in the morning to go to work or care for our loved ones. The work we do – whether it is in an office, factory, or home – it matters to our employer and the product or service that we provide to our customers or the people we serve. If the work we do is at home to care for our children, that matters because we are pouring ourselves into our kids by teaching them the truths of God’s Word and how to live a life that is dedicated to God and the plan He has for them as they grow up and leave the nest.
Contentment starts with who God is and what He created us for. In Genesis, we learn that God created the heavens and the earth. Then He created light or day, the sky, waters, land, trees, sun, moon, and creatures that swim in the ocean, fly in the sky, or roam on the land. After all of that was created, the creation of us was next.
In Genesis 1:26-27 we read, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
The word OUR there indicates that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit worked as one to create the earth. God created us, men and women, to be in His image – to look like Him, to talk and act like him. In our yearning for something more in this life, we are desiring to be more like our creator. We don’t realize that we are really searching for God. Now you may be saying – whoa! wait a minute. I didn’t say that I wanted to be like God.
But think about it. How many of us see someone we like and we say, I want to be like him or her? We follow sports figures, famous singers, movie star icons, or rich/famous people. And we even want to be like fictitious characters – Super Man, Wonder Woman, Batman, or the Mandalorian. As a teenager, I had pictures of movie stars or singers on my wall. I wanted what they had or at least to fall in love with them, so I could have their love and their money. Pretty corny and selfish, right?
And why is that we want to be like these people? Because we have this innate desire to be someone special. Someone who is immortal and will live forever. That describes God, doesn’t it?
God put this desire in our hearts. He has told us how the world began in Genesis, and we know how the world ends in Revelation. But we need to find out what is in between those two points.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
We search for that fulfillment while we are here, but in reality, that contentment is found in the in-between when we trust God. Contentment can be found in the present with God – in the here and now. Paul calls that in Philippians 4:11, learning to be content in whatever situation we are in.
God desires a relationship with us. In 2 Peter 3:9 it says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” That is part of God’s Will for us. He waits for us to come to Him to have that eternity that we long for. The eternal life that waits for us in Heaven. That is when ultimate satisfaction is found.
We yearn for this contentment and satisfaction in life, yet we look for it in things that won’t satisfy us. We try to get rich by finding the best job, the biggest house, the most fantastic or handsome guy to love us, or the fanciest car or clothes. And if we don’t get what we are looking for, we are unhappy and depressed – which can lead to other things that we try to fill ourselves up with: alcohol, drug, or sex.
Solomon was the wisest man on the earth, and he studied how humans worked, toiled, and whether they were satisfied with their work. He said in Ecclesiastes 4:8 that “There is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches so that he never asks, ‘For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?’ This also is vanity and an unhappy business.”
He called it unhappy business. That is why we need to have our contentment in God. Everything we strive for in this life focuses on self, and the need to glorify ourselves results in this unhappiness.
True contentment is found in a relationship with Jesus. When our focus is concentrated on God, doing His plan for our lives, and following Jesus and the principles He taught the disciples that are found in God’s Word, the Bible, we are filled with the contentment that He gives us. We will never hunger or thirst for anything else.
Jesus said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
This true contentment in Jesus allows us to have contentment in the in-between – the beginning and the end of the earth – and the beginning of our lives while we are here on earth and before God takes us home to be with in Heaven.
If you want to know more about Peace with God and how you can have a life with God in heaven for all of eternity, go to my website: Godsplanguidedsteps.com/youcanknowpeace
In the weeks and months to come, we will be talking about God’s Will, His purpose and plan for us, and principles of contentment like surrendering control, humility, peace, getting rid of pride, and spending time in God’s Word and prayer.
