Contentment – Philippians 4:11

Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 

Christ is our glorious all-sufficiency.  Through His completed work on the cross, He gives those of us who love Him and call Him Lord and Savior lives worth living, fruitful, exciting lives, lives free from the stranglehold of discontent. 

Sadly, Christians too often forfeit the Lord’s gifts of peace and joy for that which steals contentment:  jealousy, anxiety, fear, avarice, and unwholesome desires.  Jealousy is a demanding idol, requiring our total devotion, voracious in its appetite to consume our lives.[1]  It gives us nothing desirable; rather it brings pain, dissatisfaction, disorder, and every wicked thing.[2]  Anxiety saps our strength, clouding our thoughts, keeping us awake at night as it drags our spirit into the pit of depression.[3]  Fear tortures us while ruining our health and destroying our relationships.  Since it consumes our thoughts over what terrible fate might await us should thus and so occur, it prevents us from enjoying the blessings before our eyes.  Avarice leads us into all types of evil and grief for it creates an insatiable hunger for more, ever more,[4] causing us to focus on acquisition rather than on service to our Lord.  Unwholesome desires destroy us.  Once conceived, these unholy practices bring forth sin, which leads to spiritual and emotional death.[5] 

Do not keep company with thieves and knaves who would drain away your joy.  Rather, determine that you will, by the Lord’s grace, in His love and through His mercy, learn to be content with what you have, with who you are, and with where you are, and the Lord will fill you with Himself.  Pursue Him and in pursuing Him, you will naturally be pursuing contentment, which blended with godliness, will bring untold gain, making you rich in eternal treasures:  righteousness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.[6]  Desire Jesus above all else, and understand that those who know Him are of all people most blessed, having everything they need for absolute fulfillment and satisfaction with life. 

Make having intimacy with the Lord the passion of your heart, and you will open your spirit to receive His extravagant loving-kindness, His bountiful mercy, and His limitless riches.  As you dedicate your life to growing in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ, your cup will overflow,[7] and you will have joy, knowing perfect contentment at last, being well pleased with the goodness you find in your Father’s house.[8] 

Before the ocean waves could roar
And pound upon the rocky shore
Before the stars displayed their lights
And human souls knew their delights

Before a single heart would beat
When earth and sky were incomplete
The One who spoke to seas and land
And brought them forth at His command

Knew all the things your life would hold
As joys and mysteries unfold
He knew your heart would sing in praise
And choruses of glory raise

He knew you’d learn to hope and trust
Believing He is good and just
To see the beauty up ahead
To travel on the road He’s spread

With fragrant petals, soft and sweet
So all your days will be replete
With blessings flowing deep and sure
And honor running vast and pure

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[1] Proverbs 27:4

[2] James 3:16

[3] Proverbs 12:25

[4] 1 Timothy 6:10

[5] James 1:15

[6] 1 Timothy 6:6, 11

[7] Psalm 23:5

[8] Psalm 65:4