Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.–Philippians 4:11–13
Many people are searching for contentment, but very few seem to find it. That is largely because most people are seeking contentment in the wrong place. It is never found in possessions or circumstances. It is never based on what is happening outside. Contentment flourishes despite circumstances either good or bad, because it grows in a grateful heart.
F. B. Meyer said, “If we would find content, let us go to homes where women are crippled with rheumatism, or dying of cancer, where comforts are few, where long hours of loneliness are not broken by the intrusion of friendly faces, where the pittance of public charity hardly suffices for necessary need, to say nothing of comfort, it is there that contentment reveals itself like a shy flower. How often in the homes of the wealthy one has missed it, to find it in the homes of the poor! How often it is wanting where health is buoyant, to be discovered where disease is wearing out the strength!”
God did not promise us that things would be easy. Some of the greatest Christians in all of history suffered great persecution, bouts of grave illness, financial lack, and times of despair. What God promised us instead was His presence, and in that presence we can find contentment regardless of what else is happening in our lives. God knows everything about your circumstances today, and nothing comes into your life that does not first pass through His hands.— When you learn to accept whatever God has chosen to give you, you are on the pathway to learning true contentment.(Dr. Paul Chappell)
