Contented in His Love (#1043)
Wayne and Tobie van der Westhuizen, coauthors of Just Love, reflect on the Just Love Conversations they hosted last weekend in Kansas City. Their recap includes knowing God’s love from the inside—not merely as a truth we believe, but as the very substance of salvation and the source from which we live. They explore how desire can lure us outside the present moment, reaching for possessions, experiences, or relationships to satisfy an ache they were never meant to fill. But as we learn to receive the love and life already given to us in God, we no longer need to take from others to secure our own well-being. Living from fullness frees us to become distributors of life—people whose growing contentment in God expresses itself in generosity, compassion, and the kind of justice that helps set the world right.
Podcast Notes:
- We're sorry, but no video was made of this podcast.
- Get your copy of Just Love
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
Something you discussed in this podcast helped me put together something that happened in my lived experience. I would like to share that with you.
In 2017, the town my husband and I lived in experienced the most destructive wildfire to ever hit an urban area. Over 5000 homes were destroyed. Everyone in the community of about 150,000 people knew at least one person who lost their home. My husband and I personally knew several. We said, between ourselves, that if we had been one of those who lost our home, it would have been hard, but it wouldn’t have devastated us emotionally or spiritually. We knew that our personal possessions were not the most important things in our lives.
Then 2023 came, and God touched the two things in our lives that mattered the most to us: our children and our belief system. Within a matter of 3 months, we lost both of those things. The result was that we had to examine what our faith was really in when the things we valued the most were stripped away. That’s when we got to know God like we’ve never known him before.
Today, it is an anchor to my soul to know that my foundation is built firmly on the Rock, Jesus, and that I know no matter what comes my way, if I don’t forsake God, I’ll be alright. When the fires destroyed the homes of our friends and colleagues, we thought we had our priorities in a good place, and we did. There is nothing wrong with valuing our family and belief system. But our fullness must be in Him and Him alone.
I feel like the foundation I built my life on was the right foundation, thankfully, but God had to burn my house down to the foundation in order for me to see it. I love what you have said that when we find our fullness in Him, we don’t feel like we have to get what we need from anyone or anything else. Yes! It took a lot of pain for me to learn that lesson, and it is something I have to remind myself of frequently.
Cyndi, thanks for sharing your story and showing others how God can take the most destructive things that happen to us and turn them into greater freedom. Finding our fullness in him is a bit of a journey, but a foundation that will endure anything.