ODJ: learning to be content
April 11, 2010
So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content (1 Timothy 6:8).
READ: Philippians 4:11-19
For nearly a year, I was disturbed by a passage in Philippians in which the apostle Paul claims to possess unwavering contentment. “I have learned how to be content with whatever I have,” Paul said, adding, “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little” (Philippians 4:11-12)
Night after night I’d lie awake comparing myself with Paul, my friends, and other believers. Each time, I felt like an utter failure—a pathetic, impostor Christian. While no storm, beating, or prison term could rattle Paul’s contentment; all it took to bring me down was a little bad weather or a slow day at work.
If I’m really a new person in Christ, I wondered, why am I so easily dissatisfied? Why can’t I embrace challenges instead of concluding in the midst of them that God is neglecting me?
Perhaps one of the most freeing moments in my Christian journey came the night I was fretting over Philippians 4:11, and a phrase—that I hadn’t paid much attention to before—jumped out at me: “I have learned . . . ”
It was then that I grasped that Paul didn’t achieve lasting contentment the instant he entered into his relationship with Christ. To the contrary, Paul reached a state of steady contentment only after a lengthy and
excruciating learning process.
Like Paul, you and I can achieve increased contentment by drawing upon Jesus’ power and strength (v.13) and depending on God’s perfect provision (v.19). As we become more and more satisfied with what God has given us, we’ll be able to say with confidence that the Lord is our helper in all situations. We will become content. —Roxanne Robbins
What has God been teaching you about contentment? What ends contentment?
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