Learning to be Content
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)
What is contentment, and how do we cultivate contentment in our lives? Even more important: How do we learn to be content whatever the circumstances we face in life?
It is significant to note that the great apostle Paul says he had to learn how to be content. Contentment is not a natural state in our lives. In fact, discontentment is woven into the very DNA of most of us. We are never satisfied.
I’m reminded of a story about Samuel Gompers, the first leader of the AFL-CIO labor union in the United States. During negotiations with the management of a particular business, Gompers was asked what it was that he and the union workers wanted. His response? “We want more, more, more, and we want it now, now, now.”
Doesn’t that sound a lot like the world we live in? Nothing satisfies. Finding contentment is as difficult as catching the wind.
So how do we learn contentment? The answer is found in our relationship with God through Christ. He is the one who gives us the “strength” that leads to learned contentment in our lives. The word translated “strength” in the passage above simply means “ability”. And it is important to note that this ability comes not from ourselves, but from Christ.
God often places us in circumstances that teach us how weak we are. How powerless we can be. He does this so that we might learn where the true nature of our strength is found. And along with that strength, we begin to experience genuine contentment in life.
Are you “over your head” right now? Or as we say in Florida - Are you up to your elbows in alligators? If so, look beyond yourself and learn that it is in your weakness that you find all the strength you need. Strength found not in you, but in the Spirit of Christ in whom you live and move and have your being.
Lord, help me to learn to be content. I keep trying to do things in my own strength; through my own abilities. Help me to look beyond myself to you and the strength that will lead to peace and contentment in my life of turmoil and hurry. In Jesus Name, Amen.
In Christ,
Dan