Daily Encouragement: Day 208

From Handbook to Wisdom, Day 208

QUIETING THE RESTLESS HEART 

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer
and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests
be known to God. And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:6–7)

I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
Whether I am abased or in abundance,
whether I am filled or hungry,
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
(Philippians 4:11–13)

In The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, author Daniel J. Boorstin comments on the inconsistent and extravagant expectations of contemporary Americans:

We expect anything and everything. We expect the contradictory and the impossible. We expect compact cars which are spacious; luxurious cars which are economical. We expect to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful, active and reflective, kind and competitive. … We expect to eat and stay thin, to be constantly on the move and ever more neighborly, to go to a ‘church of our choice’ and yet feel its guiding power over us, to revere God and to be God. Never have people been more the masters of their environment. Yet never has a people expected so much more than the world could offer.

Many of us enjoy more luxuries and options than kings in earlier times could have conceived. Yet our trinkets and toys, gadgets and gewgaws, have not satisfied us, but have left us more restless than ever. This should come as no surprise to followers of Jesus who have come to understand Augustine’s words: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”