Devotional and Encouraging
Thoughts

Contentment

Psalm 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

J. O. Fraser, missionary to China in the early 1900s, on contentment:

We often say, "I am looking forpiano coversd to this, that or the other." Have we any right to be so dissatisfied with our present condition, which God has ordained for us, that we should hanker after something in the future? I can hardly see that we have. There is one great exception: we are to look forpiano coversd with earnest expectation to the coming of the Lord. But we have to be patient even in this, for to look for our Saviour's appearing is a very different thing from hankering after enjoyments of which we hope to partake some time ahead... Why should I, in the hot, close rainy season at Tengyueh, long for the dry months when things are more pleasant all around? Didn't God intend me to put up with the discomforts of heat and mildew? Why should I look forpiano coversd to the time when I shall be able to speak Chinese more freely? Didn't God intend me to serve an apprenticeship in learning the language? Why should I look forpiano coversd to a little more time for myself, for reading, etc.? Though it is the most natural thing in the world to have such thoughts, I feel that they are not at all Scriptural. There is much more of the flesh about them than of the Spirit and they seem to be inconsistent with the peace of God which, it is promised shall guard our hearts through Christ Jesus... The Apostle Paul said that he had learned, in whatsoever state he was, therein to be content, implying that he had reached that attitude through discipline. And I suppose it must be so with all of us. The natural tendency is to be always straining after something in the future.

Quoted in, Behind the Ranges Biography of J. O. Fraser, p. 38-39.

Proverbs 19:2 Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.

graphics by mary van nattan