Ask and You Shall Receive!

For a long while now I have been learning about peace and contentment. It's sometimes hard to have either, but you need one to have the other. I asked God to teach me about peace and contentment as I plodded along on this journey. He said "ask and ye shall receive"! I was getting the peace thing down pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good. So I moved on to the contentment. This must have pleased God that I wanted to learn something about contentment so much that He decided to give me a hands-on lesson. The first thing I learned is that contentment (and peace for that matter) has nothing to do with my circumstances and everything to do with God being in control. The hands-on learning began this weekend when I discovered several large charges to my account that I didn't make myself. The lesson included several phone calls and visits to the bank and the police station. Even though I was stressed about the situation I still felt a stillness in my heart, a confidence if you will, that God had it all under control--even if the outcome was negative. I knew this feeling wasn't from me or anything that I could work up. Now, I am the one that is calm when everyone else is freaking out. But that's not to say that I am not capable of my own freaking out episode. I just mean that trying as this has been, I had peace and contentment that I would not have normally. I even slept well the night after I found out about this little bit of thievery! So I trust that God has it all under control. The good and the bad. Though stress and anxiety is a normal human emotion, peace and contentment is possible through it all. Through Him.