Do you find it difficult to be content in your current circumstances?

Philippians 4:11-12 give us some of Paul’s convictions on the matter: Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 

 Like Paul, we all go through some difficult circumstances in this life. When Paul lists his most trying times in his second letter to the Corinthians, it is clear that he lived as long as he did because of God’s mercies; beatings with rods, stoned several times, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and in peril everywhere he went.

He was content through all of that. Obviously, he suffered pain and deprivation and the scorn of other people. Yet, he learned how to navigate all of that being content in what he knew was true of the Lord who had promised that “He would never leave him nor forsake him.”

Paul trusted God’s Word and was content in these circumstances! Just looking at what Paul did may give us some insight into how to gain contentment for ourselves.

There are three things to consider (though there may be many more).

• Commands
• Confession
• Contentment

Saul (eventually known as Paul) was a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee (Acts 23:6). He had been taught the scriptures. He would have been taught all the commands of God (Deuteronomy 6:6-8). He was (like most Pharisees) proud of the way he was able to keep the law of God (according to their interpretation of it), even as he was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1).

In Acts 9 we see the salvation of Saul. He was guided and taught by the Apostles of Christ and started to boldly preach (Acts 9:29, 14:3, 19:8) to a surprised world of both his previous Pharisaical brothers and his new brothers in Christ. There are several places where Paul confesses his sinfulness (Romans 7:18; 1 Timothy 1:15).  In these confessions Paul is addressing our need to see that it is only in Christ that we can be forgiven and live in the peace of His salvation.

So, this confession I am talking about that is so necessary for contentment is our confession that Jesus Christ is Lord and that it is His righteousness that we must rest in, not having any of our own.

It is with this faith, this understanding that God’s law was given to us in order that we would be convicted of our sin (Galatians 3:24) and therefore, see our need for a Savior.

1John 5:4 says, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

This “overcoming” will lead to contentment if we are faithful to the Word of God and to the Lord Jesus Christ, in our obedience to His commands and the trust we place in Him to guide us day by day. God doesn’t just promise ordinary little blessings to those who obey His commandments but in Deuteronomy 28 He makes it clear that they would literally “overtake you” because you obeyed the voice of the Lord (Deuteronomy 28:2).

Contentment has been on my mind because of a study of Ecclesiastes. Loving God by keeping His commands can lift the Christian out of the futile thinking that all is vanity under the sun. That kind of thinking leads to discontentment. The ability we have to serve one another and love one another, to eat the fruits of our labor, share our joys and sorrows, and withstand suffering, come to us because we have a sovereign God who gives us good gifts and great blessings. Let’s look for them and be thankful.

Obeying God’s commands plus confessing faith in Him should be a sure way to contentment.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. Ecclesiastes 12:13