Today you will envy the blessings of another, or you will bask in the wonder of the amazing grace you have been given.

Contentment celebrates grace. The contended heart is satisfied with the Giver and is therefore freed from craving the next gift.

Whatever sits on the other side of your "if-only" is where you are looking for life, peace, joy, hope, and lasting contentment of heart.

Sturdy contentment that can weather the storms of difficulty and want is always rooted in worship.

You're not generally angry because things are in the way of God and his kingdom purposes. You're angry because something or someone has gotten in the way of something you crave, something you think will inspire contentment, satisfaction, or happiness in you. Your heart is desperate to be inspired, and you get mad when your pursuits are blocked. Where you look for awe will fundamentally control the thoughts and emotions of your heart in ways you normally don't even realize.

Here is one of the most beautiful fruits of grace—a heart that is content, more given to worship than demand and more given to the joy of gratitude than the anxiety of want.

the more you focus on your own neediness, the more your desires will be christened as needs.

Ask yourself: What makes your good day a good day? What are the things that tend to make you happy and satisfied? What gives your life a sense of meaning and purpose? What are the things you faithfully pursue, and what are you hoping to experience once you get them? If I watched the video of your last year, what treasure would I conclude you're after?

Here's what happens to us all - we seek horizontally for the personal rest that we are to find vertically, and it never works. Looking to others for your inner sense of well-being is pointless.

Perhaps in ways that you have never come close to considering, your dissatisfaction is an awe problem.

If you put too many things in your need category, you will end up frustrated with life, hurt by others, and doubting God's goodness.

When I opt for a me-centered "more," what I actually get is always much, much less.