Standing in the Field I Prayed For: Unhindered Contentment

What I'm saying is you can desire a thing and still be content. You can want a husband, a baby, a house, a different season, a body without pain that cooperates with you (hello aging back and knees!), and not be in sin for one second of it. What moves you from contentment is not the want, it's the verdict you hand down about God underneath the want. The one that says He came up short with you. That HE gave the good portion to somebody else and left you with crumbs.I want you to notice something else about that verse. The first half. The LORD is my shepherd. The sufficiency is not located in the field. It is located in who is standing in the field with you. I keep circling back to Exodus, where God gives His name as I AM WHO I AM. He is self-existing. HE is self-defining. He does not come from anything and He does not run out. And if HE can create something out of nothing, then nothing is a threat to Him the way that it is a threat to us. Which means that sometimes the best thing He has for you is a season of lack and it's not because He is withholding. Psalm 84:11 says, "No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." I truly believe that. And sometimes the good thing is empty hands. Sometimes the good thing is whatever makes you look up and focus on Him. Paul knew this very well. In Philippians 4