Opening Question

Are you content? Often times we go through life without stopping to reflect on this question. This study is about embracing life’s challenges, letting go of worldly attachments and becoming content.

Life Happens to Everyone

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend.

A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NLT)
  • Life is full of positive and negative experiences. It’s easy to feel content when life is going well, but how content do you feel when you go through hard things?
  • What are you currently going through? How do you think God wants you to accept the circumstances in your life and to learn from them?
  • Hardships happen to everyone, but that doesn’t mean God is against us. God is actually with us and He allows our experiences to shape us so that we can mature and grow.

The World Will Never Be Enough

15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

1 John 2:15-16 (NLT)
  • What do you love most about the world (pleasure, achievement, praise, comfort, materialism)?
  • The world is constantly trying to convince us that it will be fulfilling. We are all conditioned from a young age to believe that money, relationships, and success will make us happy. Our achievements and success can only temporarily satisfy us, but a relationship with God lasts forever.
  • How would your life looks different if you decided to value God more than the world?

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

Philippians 3:8-11 (NLT)
  • What do you need to let go of so that you can value God more?

Embracing Growth

Don’t run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them; if you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure. And true patience brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line—mature, complete, and wanting nothing. 5 If you don’t have all the wisdom needed for this journey, then all you have to do is ask God for it; and God will grant all that you need. He gives lavishly and never scolds you for asking.

James 1:3-5 (VOICE)
  • We learn how to be content when we patiently endure and persevere through hard times.
  • Do you ask God to take away your circumstances or do you ask God to have wisdom through your circumstances?
  • Psalm 138:8 (NLT) The Lord will work out his plans for my life— for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me.
  • God is faithful to us through the ups and downs of life. He will always work it out when we decide to persevere and trust him.
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This article was created by a member of the Deep Spirituality editorial team.

Deep Spirituality logo

This article was created by a member of the Deep Spirituality editorial team.

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