Embracing Contentment and Recognizing Gifts

Embracing Contentment and Trusting God's Abundance

In this episode of Steps to Trusting, Erin Michele discusses the importance of finding contentment with the gifts we've received and how to shift our focus from what we lack to the abundance God provides. She reflects on her own struggles with time and the pressures of accomplishment, emphasizing the value of relationships and the role of God as our ultimate source. Erin reads from Philippians 4:11-13 and 2 Corinthians 7, offering insights into shifting our mindset from discontentment to gratitude. She concludes with a prayer and encourages listeners to see limited resources as a reminder of our need for God, promoting contentment in various aspects of life including time, relationships, and personal limitations.

You can connect with Erin at https://erinmichele.net/

00:00 Introduction to Steps to Trusting

00:54 Finding Contentment in Time

03:44 Biblical Insights on Contentment

05:08 Contentment in Relationships

08:58 Recognizing Our Limits and God's Abundance

10:19 Reflecting on Gifts and Gratitude

15:46 Closing Thoughts and Encouragement

16:15 Final Prayer and Farewell

Transcript

[00:00:00] Erin Michele: Hi, I'm Erin Michele. You found yourselves at Steps to Trusting, where it's our goal to meet you where you are in your faith journey, and to encourage you to continue to transfer your trust from yourself and your actions to the God who is enough. 

[00:00:12] If you are like me and you need to be reminded over and over that we never needed to earn the status of enough, but we trust a God who is,

[00:00:21] then you are in the right place

[00:00:23] On this episode of Steps to Trusting, we are going to be talking about being content with the gifts we have received.

[00:00:29] If you desire to see people around you as the gift that they are, Then this podcast episode is for you. This episode is coming off of a conversation with Andrea Schmidt where she talked about finding yourself in a place you never expected and trying to find joy and contentment there. This is a continuation of that conversation. Trying to find contentment with what you've been giveN.

[00:00:54] To start this episode talking about time, but I'm starting there because it's an easier place to start. Where we're headed is thinking about friendships, thinking about relationship, but we'll get there. About a year ago, I found myself saying over and over, there's not enough time to accomplish the things that I desire to accomplish. And I realized that hidden in that statement is a lack of contentment with a gift that I've been given. As I heard myself say that over and over, I felt the discontentment grow in my heart about the amount of time that I had.

[00:01:30] My focus is on what I didn't have, Instead of focusing on what I do have. My focus was on what I could accomplish in that time, instead of the fact that God had given me a gift of time.

[00:01:45] I felt the pressure of the things I wanted or needed to accomplish, and I felt the limited time ahead of me. I was looking at the lack instead of seeing that there already was an abundance. 

[00:02:03] And as I felt this discontentment, I knew that I was allowing it and maybe even perpetuating it by saying, there's not enough time to accomplish all the things that I want to accomplish. I realized that I wanted to stop saying, there's not enough time because that was growing in me, this discontentment of what I couldn't do and what I didn't have. I started to tell myself, there's enough time for me to accomplish all the things that God calls me to accomplish. 

[00:02:33] And as that statement started to sink into my life, I realized that if that was true, I needed to instead think about what are the things that God is calling me to? What are the things that he desires of me? 

[00:02:47] I needed to realize that my desire to achieve

[00:02:51] the pressure that I put on myself to accomplish was not coming from God. It was a pressure from myself that I had put on my plate too much to accomplish if I didn't have the time to accomplish it. I had to shift my mindset that if I don't have enough time for what I want to accomplish in a day or in a week or in a month, then maybe what I want to accomplish is too big, not the amount of time too small. Though our time is limited, I am learning to see that the time we have is a gift. The limits on that time do not change that it was a gift. A gift that I get to experience.

[00:03:33] This caused me to slow down and to realize that contentment is not about what I do or what I have.

[00:03:42] But it's about relationship with God. When I looked up Bible verses on contentment. I found myself in Philippians 4 verse 11. It says I have learned in whatever situation, I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.

[00:04:00] In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. When I read that, I'm reminded, 

[00:04:12] that my gaze needs to shift. Instead of looking at the thing that I have that seems limited or not enough, I can turn my eyes to God, the one who gives me strength. I'm reminded of his presence

[00:04:26] and his ability even in my lack. 

[00:04:29] I've seen this pattern where gifts with limits seem to cause discontentment in our hearts instead of thankfulness for the gift that we've received. Let's pray as we think about how this applies to our lives. Dear God, I thank you that you are with us. Lord, 

[00:04:45] I thank you for the gifts that we have in our lives. As I think of gifts with limits, beginnings, and ends, I ask that you would help us to be content with the gift that we've received, and not cause it to turn us to expectation and desiring for more.

[00:05:05] It's in Jesus name that I pray. Amen. Another place I've seen this need for contentment is in relationship.

[00:05:13] Friendship is a place where I'm learning this lesson. I'm learning that What people offer me, I want to see as a gift, and is enough for the role they play in my life. Often we look at what is limited and are disappointed at its limits instead of seeing the gift that has been received. 

[00:05:34] I talk about not being enough a lot on this podcast. The reason I talk about it over and over is because it's something that I struggle with all the time. I struggle with my limits. I struggle with Desiring to earn an identity by my actions, with people pleasing and wanting people to be happy with me and feeling like I need to earn an identity or prove a reputation.

[00:06:02] And as I've struggled through trying to figure out what enough really means. I've shared with you some different categories where we are enough as people made in God's image. We are enough to be valued and loved. Each person is made in the image of God and the value that God laid on them as he made people in his image

[00:06:27] can never be taken away.

[00:06:29] And I've also shared the opposite end that I've found where we are not enough to fulfill the needs of people around us. We are also not enough to earn an identity and value.

[00:06:41] I wanted to add to the column of places that we are enough today. You are enough to fulfill the role that God has called you to fulfill. So, and people are enough to fulfill the role that they have been placed in your life to fulfill.

[00:06:59] But we still feel deeply the limits. And I find that in that place we, again, are looking at the wrong thing. We're looking at the limits instead of the abundance. Were looking at the vessel,

[00:07:15] that's offering the gift, instead of looking to the source of the gift. 

[00:07:20] I wanna take us to look at 2 Corinthians 7. It says, But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. This just reminds me that God is the source of all that we need 

[00:07:34] I'm encouraged so much because it's so very clearly says that God used Titus to comfort the people. Titus wasn't the source of comfort. God was the source of comfort. But Titus got to offer it as a gift. My friend, you are enough you are enough to accomplish what God desires for you to accomplish. You are enough for the role that God sent you to fill. You are not enough for what 

[00:08:05] people around you need, but you are enough to step in with your little to offer to the Lord, to pour it out to friends, to family members, to give them what God has given you as an overflow in your heart. And that is enough for the role that you were called to fill. We have not been called to do the saving, To do the fulfilling, to do the satisfying.

[00:08:30] We have been called to be the hands and feet of God, to love one another, to let ourselves be known by our love, but not to earn love because of our actions, not to earn value because of what we have to offer This can be freeing if we have proper perspective of the roles that we are called to in lives with others. Friends, just like time is limited, people are also limited.

[00:09:03] We're limited by time, we're limited by ability, we're limited by resources.

[00:09:10] And I think my search for trying to figure out if I'm enough and defining what enough is in my life,

[00:09:16] Is motivated by feeling the limits of myself and others in my life.

[00:09:22] Just as I think about trying to be content in time and the limits of time, I have needed to struggle through contentment with the limits of myself and others.

[00:09:35] There are some things that I've learned along the way and I wanted to share them with you.

[00:09:41] Having limits

[00:09:43] doesn't change your value.

[00:09:45] Not being able to fill someone's needs. doesn't change your value. Not knowing what people need or howing to show up in their need does not change your value. God loves you so much that he died for you.

[00:10:00] And that is not something that you need to earn. That is a gift that is given.

[00:10:06] As I've struggled I've realized that I've needed to shift my gaze off of the limits and onto the blessing,

[00:10:15] off of what's not available and onto what is given. So I want to encourage you now to take a moment and think about the gifts that you have received this year from the people in your life.

[00:10:30] And as I think of that for myself, I think of time and smiles and phone calls and texts and cards. And walks, and hard questions, and sitting in silence.

[00:10:48] I think of shared tears, and shared laughter. These gifts that I have received from those around me, people that I love.

[00:10:57] I want to remind you as you look back on those things that you have received from others,

[00:11:04] to see it for the gift that it is. To see them as a gift. To see those relationships as gifts, to see the things that they've offered you as gifts. To not look at their limits, or the times that they couldn't be there, or that they didn't say the right thing. But to look at what they had to offer you. 

[00:11:24] as a friend, I encourage you to choose to be thankful for kindness of a friend, to be content in what they've offered to you.

[00:11:34] To not let what they've offered become an expectation, but see it as the gift that it is. The lunch or the coffee. The text.

[00:11:46] All these things can pour out of the abundance of love that God has put in our hearts. And yet, those things offered are a gift. Not an expectation. Just because someone offered you something good doesn't mean that they are the source of that good in your life. God is the source. Thank God for the gifts that he's put in your life. The gift of family, gift of friends, the gift of time, the gift of resources. Be reminded that those gifts are from God.

[00:12:21] And if those people in your life had a gift that they were able to offer you, that they got it first from the Lord. 

[00:12:28] And on the receiving side of friendship, I encourage you to be content with what is offered. See the gift for what it is, not its limitedness. Because we are all limited and what we all have to offer is limited. Friend, I invite you to this contentment.

[00:12:46] And friend, I want to acknowledge the times that they didn't say the right thing or they didn't show up or they didn't text. And I want to remind you that the people in our life are enough to fulfill the role that they were made to fulfill.

[00:13:00] And sometimes when people have let us down, it's because we were expecting too much. But I want to remind you that our God does not let us down, that He is with us always. Psalm 23 reminds us that even when we walk through dark and hard places, that God is with us. He is with you.

[00:13:22] When you're tempted to feel discontent by what you've been offered. Friends, I encourage you, as you look forward, to see the places where someone once offered you a gift and maybe they're not now, to not see it as a disappointment but a reminder for the gift that they had once offered. to see their limits and to see yours and to see it as an invitation of our need for God.

[00:13:50] And let's turn our gaze to the source. God is the one who's given you those friends and family members, those relationships. God is the one who's put those people in your life. God is the one who gave them the time to reach out to you.

[00:14:06] The care poured into them, the fruit of the spirit love, patience, kindness, goodness. Those things that our friends offer that are good are from God as our source.

[00:14:18] I encourage you to shift your mindset to be content and thankful for the gifts that you have received instead of seeing people's limitedness as a fault.

[00:14:29] Or a problem. Let's see people's limitedness as a reminder that everything we have to offer each other was first from God and that God is the source of all that we need. Our God is enough to give us value, identity, love,

[00:14:46] In this Christmas season. I encourage you to give not because of expectations, but to give out of the abundance of what you've received. Out of the love that God has put in your heart to offer what you have

[00:15:00] with a joyful heart.

[00:15:02] Corinthians 9, 8 says, And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. This passage reminds me that God is our source, that we can abound in good works, that we can love people in our lives well, because God is able to make grace abound to you. Friends, god is able to make grace abound to you. And He will use people in your life as gifts to show you his love and care and grace for you. It's okay that what they had to offer was not enough

[00:15:41] to fulfill the need you had. Because we serve a God who is enough.

[00:15:46] Friends, as you look back at the year behind us, I encourage you to remember The places where you have felt God's love through the act of a friend or family member. And as you look forward, I encourage you to let what people offer you be enough. It may not be enough to fulfill your need in full, but it is enough. To fulfill exactly the role that God called them to fulfill in your life.

[00:16:15] Let's pray as we close. Dear God, I thank you for this time to think about you as our source of all that we need, the source of the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Lord, thank you that you offer. These good things to us, and that you use people in our lives to be the vehicle that offers this to us often.

[00:16:42] Lord, I pray that we would see the people in our lives and the gifts that they have to offer as enough, that we would be content with who they are in our lives, what they have to offer us, Lord, that we wouldn't be discontent by the limits that we see that people have, 

[00:16:57] amen. And I pray for my own heart, Lord, that I wouldn't be discontent in what I have to offer but that I would be content in knowing that you call me. That I have time to accomplish what you call me to accomplish. And that I never had to be enough in people's lives because you are God.

[00:17:16] You are the one who saves.

[00:17:18] You are the one who gives value and identity. Lord, we praise you for that. It's in Jesus name that I pray. Amen. Friends, thank you for joining me today. If you were encouraged, please like, subscribe, and share with a friend.

[00:17:31] If you want to connect with me, you can do that over at ErinMichele. net. That's Michele with one L. There you'll find links to my socials as well as be able to download my free gift,

[00:17:42] What's My Next Step. This is a Bible journaling resource to help you look at places in your life where you can continue to turn over trust from yourself and your actions to the God who is enough. I hope you join us back here next time. But until then, I wanted to leave you with this reminder from Ephesians 2.

[00:17:58] 10. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Friends, I'm praying for you as you keep on stepping. See you next time.