As my daugthter and I drove home from a store, we found ourselves comparing our lives with others and doing a bit of complaining.  For Dana, the downer was all the things her friends had that she didn't: brand new cars to drive, large homes with several beautiful rooms, the latest high-tech gadgets, expensive clothes, and high-priced handbags. For me, it was wishing we had a bigger house so we could get her a piano and not have to hear her complain anymore.

   Since we were on the subject of bigger houses, her face fell and she sadly told me of another one of her friends who was losing her home due to debt and a parent's job loss.  
      Immediately, we were both convicted by our complaints. We prayed for the family that was losing their home and then I silently prayed for wisdom to turn that topic into a teaching moment.
     "You know, Dana," I told her softly, as I continued to drive: "a lot of people around us are losing their homes. That's why it's important for us to not only think about what we have and be grateful for it, but to focus on what we have that we will never lose."
     She looked at me for a moment. And then she got it.
      We took turns recounting all that we have that can never be taken from us:

   So often we go through life looking at what others have and wondering when our ship will come in. But we must remember we have a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10),  a God who promises to supply all our needs (not necessarily all our wants!) according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19), and  a God who has gone to prepare an unfathomable place for us to live with Him someday (John 14:3).
    In Psalm 4, David was asking God for relief from his distresses. Life looked bleak for Him and He was, like we often do, questioning if God noticed and would respond. But then David  must have remembered all that he had in his relationship with God, because he finished his prayer with a song of perspective and joy:  
          "You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine              abound
           I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."  (Psalm 4:7-8)
   In another translation, that verse sounds like a song I should be singing every day that I begin to forget my blessings and long for more:
         "I have God's more-than-enough, more joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees.
        At days' end I'm ready for sound sleep. For you, God, have put my life back together." (The Message)
   Can you draw strength from knowing that you have God's "more-than-enough" even if at times it doesn't look like quite enough? Thank Him today for all that you have, as well as for the blessings that you don't yet see. The Bible says if we belong to Christ, God has blessed us in the heavenly realm with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). And if we "share in His sufferings" we are "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17). Joint heirs with God! Think about that. We are heirs of all that is His. Now that's an inheritance. That's a future. That is more than enough. 
   To have  more joy in one ordinary day than the rest of the world has in all their shopping sprees is priceless. It's something money can't buy. And it's something that can never be taken away from you.