A few summers ago, I spent the summer reading and re-reading the words in Psalm 16. I went verse-by-verse, day-by-day, letting God bring instruction and correction to my heart. One verse especially captured my attention: “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.”
Contentment is something our hearts must learn. We are drawn towards the lie that more will satisfy— a little more success, a little more comfort, a little more power, a little more influence, a little more fame.
Dr. Richard Swenson says it this way in his book Margin, “Contentment isn’t denying one’s feelings about unhappiness, but instead a freedom from being controlled by those feelings.”
David, the author of Psalm 16, isn’t simply accepting his “boundary lines”; he’s delighting in them because he believes the Lord Himself is his inheritance. Contentment, then, is more than accepting our circumstances—it is actively trusting the goodness of God’s provision.
Instead of believing the lie that more will satisfy, may my heart delight that God alone is my portion and my cup. He is enough. He is the One who makes my lot secure.
Lord, in both seasons of plenty and little, may I delight that you are my inheritance.