Contentment – audio

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There’s a tendency to postpone contentment, or to explain away why we don’t have it right now.

The condition is so common that it’s got its own street name: the “Greener Grass Syndrome.”

Sometimes the good life is almost within grasp, just the other side of a 5% raise. Or it’s in that house across town, the pretty one with 500 more square feet, the fenced-in back yard, better school district, and less traffic. Yep, I’d be content there, I know I would.

Sometimes it’s got a chronological component.

I’ll be happy when I get these kids out of diapers. If not then, I’ll get it when they go to school. And so on.

At some point, or so I’m told, you live long enough to realize that you should have just enjoyed the good days you had instead of thinking they were just past the next milestone.

That’s why Paul always challenges me. He does not let me sit here and justify my restlessness with feeble excuses about the life I wish I had.

He says it plainly: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Philippians 4:11). Seriously? How?

The key is in what he writes two verses below, a verse that’s quoted so much it’s almost become a cliché. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

I suppose those words of Paul have been framed and hung on more walls than perhaps any other verse. Everybody can quote them, but do we know what they mean? Contrary to popular opinion, they don’t mean you can do anything you set your mind to, that God will always give you the strength to do whatever you choose. What they mean is right there in the paragraph.

Jesus Christ will give you the strength to be content regardless of what’s going on around you.

Understanding that is crucial. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. No matter how hard you try, you won’t have contentment aside from the power of Jesus.

It’s also true that he’s not going to force it on you . . . there’s an “I can do” part to the verse as well. So where do you stand today? Is your contentment just around the corner but always out of reach?

Paul tells us to stop making excuses, turn our lives completely over to Jesus, and embrace commitment in him.

There’s some pretty bad stuff going on in our world right now, but I suppose it’ll always be that way.

We must choose to submit everything we have, including our disposition, to the one who saved us.