Philippians 4:11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content.
A book originally published in 1648 by the Puritan writer Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. Burroughs writes: ”Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.” (Page 6).
Contentment is not a temperament or personality trait; it is a discipline acquired through process. God uses suffering, trials, abundance, and non-abundance to spiritually grow us in contentment. Burroughs called it, “a sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit”. Yes, some people are more given to being content than others, but it is the Spirit of God using His Word that exposes us to the need of resisting discontentment and being content in “whatever situation” we are in.
Think about when The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment was written, and then think about where we live today. We have every convenience that modern life offers; we have far greater opportunities and wealth, yet we often fall into the dark place of discontentment. Adults are not content with their mate, their jobs, or their station in life. Teens are discontent, wanting more, needing to feed their lack of contentment with things of the world, filling their minds with temporal means of satisfaction. Children, in general, are driven by desires to want more, to feed the furnace of desire with having more. They will become adults who, like us, will continue to feed that furnace of desire, thinking more horizontally than vertically toward God to be their full source of satisfaction and contentment.
Burroughs goes on to write: “In Psalm 73:25, ‘Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee.’ There is nothing in heaven or earth that can satisfy me, but yourself. If God gave you not only earth but heaven, that you should rule over sun, moon and stars, and have the rule over the highest of the sons of men, it would not be enough to satisfy you, unless you had God himself. There lies the first mystery of contentment. And truly a contented man, though he is the most contented man in the world, is the most dissatisfied man in the world; that is, those things that will satisfy the world, will not satisfy him.” (Page 29).
Every human at every stage of life struggles with contentment; there are as many reasons that people are discontent as there are stars in the sky. Where is your place of discontentment? Where do you need to grow in being content? Take time to grow in grace and plunge into the study on discontentment found here.