Contentment

I love rainbows! Just recently I was surprised and blessed to see a beautiful one over my city on a hill. I did not have my  camera phone with me to snap a picture- and yet I believe it was meant to be that way, for that moment to be an experience of prayer and praise alone. The feeling of contentment was soul deep, a God moment. I had been praying for God to show me his presence that day, and he did in the most beautiful way. The rainbow, the promise.
  
Paul says in Philippians 4:12-13 "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength."


I have learned that knowing and trusting Jesus is the secret. If you know only this dear one- then you know enough about my God:


^{Ephesians 2:4,5}
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions".


That was me once- dead in spirit and a slave to my weakness to sin, a shell of a body, void of the spirit that I was made to possess. I knew no true peace and happiness. My search for worldly reward and promise came up short every time. 
I knew no contentment or love in the pit of which I lived. 


But because of His great love for me- a rainbow reached down into my mire and the light of the words of Christ shone through the darkness and cut through this heart of stone and saved me from my misery. You ask what? How? I answer-


An invitation by a friend to church, a gift, a living bible, a guitar, a beautiful song, prayers, a message spoken,  a hand, a kind face, a smile, tears on my cheek, a feeling of love I had never known, the memory of a child's voice drifting back into my 20 year old heart; a young girl staring out of  an ice covered window pane singing-


"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so."


But Jesus did more than that. He told me, He showed me, and He never left me, even when I turned back to sin and walked away. 
Even when I despaired of life itself and wanted to see it end.


Why? Because I matter to Him dear one, just as you matter to him. This is the great secret, everyone, yes everyone was created in Him and through Him. You are a part of Him and He loves you so.