Can you remember a time when you felt truly content?
For me, it was the beach vacations I enjoyed growing up.
From start to finish, everything felt like a perfect fit during that handful of days.
- The weather wasn’t too hot or too cold.
- I went to bed tired and woke up rested.
- And our family activities were just challenging enough to spark excitement, without being so challenging that anyone felt stressed.
On days like these, it was easy to be content.
Life felt like neither “too much” nor “too little” for me. And I was satisfied.
But as an adult, I have to admit: contentment is harder to find. Because—unlike a week at the beach—life doesn’t always feel like a perfect fit.
Maybe you can relate.
Sometimes we feel overwhelmed because of our challenges. Other times we feel underwhelmed because of what’s missing from our lives. And all of it can leave us wondering if contentment is really possible here, in the real world.
But, in Philippians 4:11-13, Paul answers our wondering with an enthusiastic “yes!”
No matter what we are facing, we, as Believers, are able to be content.
Paul says:
“…I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
(Philippians 4:11-13, NASB)
These words, written by Paul in prison, teach us 3 essential truths about contentment.
Truth #1: Contentment comes from recognizing that Jesus’ power is sufficient for everything we face.
I have to admit, this challenges my usual perspective on contentment. Like I hinted at before, I tend to be most content when life feels like a perfect fit.
When I feel sufficient for life (because the challenges aren’t too big for me to handle) and life feels sufficient for me (because it’s rich enough to meet my needs), I can definitely find contentment there. I can accept my lot and feel satisfied. Simply put, my contentment comes from my circumstances.
But actually, this is not the truest kind of contentment—because even in ideal circumstances, I will eventually long for more. How often do we hear of people who “have it all,” yet never have enough. Who have every need met, yet are unsatisfied?
Our outward circumstances—no matter how good—are not enough to make us truly satisfied with life.
This is why Paul says there is a secret to both having little and to having plenty.
And here is the secret: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
In other words, it’s finding our satisfaction in the Savior who stays with us and undertakes for us through it all.
When the challenges of life are too much for us, we can know they’re not too much for Jesus. Hisstrength is sufficient to handle them and He will infuse us with His strength as we need it.
And also, when the joys of life seem too little to get by on, we can know they’re not too little for Jesus to make something good from. The same power that once stretched a boy’s meager lunch to feed thousands, is at work in our lives, too. Jesus can bring overwhelming blessing from what seems like lack right now.
So when discontentment starts creeping in because of all that’s “too much” and “too little” for us, we need to stop and ask ourselves:
“But is this too much for Jesus to handle? And is this too little for Jesus to make something good from?”
May our souls accept and believe the resounding “NO” that follows.
Truth # 2: Contentment is learned trust.
Twice in these verses, Paul says he “learned” how to be content in every kind of circumstance.
It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 11, where Paul lists trials he had faced in living for Jesus: 5 times he’d received lashings. 3 times he’d been beaten with rods. 1 time he’d been stoned. 3 times he’d been shipwrecked. Countless times he’d been endangered by nature and people and gone without sleep, food, and clothing.
If anyone could say of life, “this is too much” or “this is not enough for me,” it was Paul. And yet in every one of these situations, he got to see Christ’s power meet the challenges through him. He got to see God move His grand plan forward through it all.
Experience—and not just book knowledge—had taught Paul that Christ’s power was sufficient and working in whatever he faced. And so when he found himself in yet another dire strait, He didn’t claw to get out. He trusted God to see Him through it.
If we want greater contentment in our lives today, we need to let yesterday teach us to trust God. How has God provided for us? How have we caught glimpses of God’s greater plan in the midst of our suffering?
Truth # 3: Contentment isn’t resigning, it’s relying on the Lord.
For a long time, I thought of contentment as just accepting my lot, resigning myself to the facts of life, however unsatisfactory they may be. But the contentment Paul describes isn’t passive. It’s active. “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
While contentment isn’t clawing to get out of your current circumstances, it isn’t resigning yourself to them either.
Contentment is relying on Jesus as you actively live the life before you.
When you face challenges, contentment looks like rising to them—asking Jesus to meet them through you.
When you face lack, contentment looks like praying and getting creative with God—trusting that even if He doesn’t provide the way you’d like, He will see you through.
When we know, experience and rely on Christ’s power, some circumstances may still feel ill-fitting—and not at all like a beach vacation.
But we can still find deep satisfaction in knowing they are perfectly fit for displaying the sufficiency of our Savior.
This devotion is based on one of the Scriptures from my reading plan: “Identity in Christ” To receive a copy of the reading plan (and future reading plans), sign up for the email list below. Hope you’ll follow along!
©2024 Paige K. Burhans
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation. www.lockman.org
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