The Secret To Contentment
I was honored with a position in business that comprised the duty of hiring manager.
About twice a year positions came open that needed to be filled. That meant that I would work with the Staffing
department to place ads
for the open positions. A week or two after the ad was placed, the Staffing department would call and report the number
of responses. The number of responses ranged between 600 to 800 applicants. Using a process, Staffing would send
10 to 12 resumes out of the pool. Using another process 5 might get an interview and 1 selected.
When I told the selected person that they were hired, they were exuberant! They were so happy! Let 18 months pass and some were in my office whining that they were not being promoted. "What happened", I would ask? "When I hired you were happy as a pig in mud. And now you sit in my office trying to whine or pout yourself up the corporate ladder." I think most will agree with me that excelling in pouting is not a meritorious act for an assignment to a position of greater responsibility.
The root cause of this pouting whining behavior is discontentment. Let's see if God's word has anything to say about contentment. Open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4 verses 10 - 13.
10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Perhaps you will agree with me that we have a rather staggering and uncomfortable statement that comes configured twice, once in verse 11 and again in verse 12. I am referring to Paul's statement "I have learned to be content" he says in verse 11, "[in] whatever the circumstances" and in verse 12 he said it again "I have learned the secret of being content" and then he said, "in any and every situation".
The reason one finds this to be so staggering and uncomfortable, I must confess, is because we are living in a society that is permeated in a spirit of discontentment.
As you watch television you are bombarded with discontentment. In January the TV ads are structured to make you feel discontented with your body and your weight. The ads say look at these people they have muscles or skinny waists. They have it you don't. This is something you want. You don't have it today. Sign up now.
And yet in saying society is permeated in a spirit of discontentment is far too easy, but not closely uncomfortable enough. The real challenge is not so much that I live in a society that is discontented. If I am honest I will admit that I face discontentedness in my own heart and mind on an almost daily basis.
Envy and contentment never go hand in hand. Covetousness which is a sin and contentment which is a grace never coexists. Envy is a dreadful thing it is a horrible thing and it will destroy the enjoyment of our life on many levels.
An envious heart or a desiring heart fails to see that it is God's divine intervention that dispenses gifts and honors and abilities. These individuals that we frown on don't have this as gifts to themselves. It is God, from which all good things come, who dispenses these gifts and awards these honors and grants to individuals these abilities.
Failure to understand that means - that the covetous heart is almost always sad at the happiness of others. A covetous heart becomes hostile to people that have never ever injured us. The dreadful thing about covetousness and envy is that we can hate people that we don't even know, people that we have never even had a conversation with, people that we have only seen from the other side of the parking lot. Maybe I encountered them on an elevator somewhere. For some reason or another, why is it that I find this person so distasteful?
When I trace this to its ugly root I discover that it is because of covetousness. I realize what fuels my covetous heart is a lack of contentment with who I am, what I have and the portion of honor that has been bestowed upon me.
Now I have found these verses very uncomfortable. And I am of the opinion that if I spent weeks putting this together and being uncomfortable there is no reason why you should get out of it this evening. I want you to realize that the lessons I teach must pass through my own heart if they are to be of any value to you. This is distinctly uncomfortable and peculiarly challenging.
I have learned the secret, says Paul, on being contented. If you gab this and market this everybody would want this. The spirit of discontent that exists in our culture is such that this is exactly true. People long for contentment and they think that they will find it down various avenues. And of course the search for contentment leaves them -- high and dry.
In a book "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment" Jeremiah Burroughs remarks "The mystery of Christian contentment is the duty, the glory and excellence of a Christian." This is interesting. I think that I am not too far in assuming that if we were to try to choose a word or a characteristic that was representative of mature Christianity that would be marked by excellence and honor and by duty, I'm not sure that the first word that comes to mind would be contentment. And yet says Burroughs in his day, if you want to see a Christian that has progressed in Godliness let me tell you what to look for. Look into their jewelry box as it were, and look to see if you find there the rare jewel of Christian contentment.
Contentment is seldom valued and considered in this way. Contentment is an undervalued grace. Perhaps this is so because we cannot discover contentment by developing 7 new habits or learning 5 easy steps. Because it cannot be instantly secured, maybe we choose to ignore this essential Christian grace in favor of more accessible characteristics.
In order to deal with this in context, we need to understand the setting, and the secret and the significance. These are the points I will use to trace a line through this material.
The Setting
First of all let me say a word or two about the setting. We are studying a real letter, written by a real man, at a real moment in time, to a real church in the then known world. Philippi was about the same distance from Rome as Chicago is from New York about 800 miles or so. Paul, who had established the church down by a riverside with a group of women, was now distanced from this by all of these miles and he was now in the jail in Rome.
The Church in Philippi loved him as much as he loved them. And so they determined that it would be profitable to send someone to Paul to convey their love for Paul and carry with him gifts in order to be a source of encouragement to him. This man by the name of Epaphroditus made his way to Rome. This is referred to in verse 18 where we read:
18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent.
So that is the context. A man from the church in Philippi had shown up in Rome and had brought these gifts. While he was there he had become dangerously ill. God had brought him back to health and strength which was a relief to Paul. Paul now sending back to Philippi this letter by the way of Epaphroditus which is in part his thank you note. Also Paul he would be able to give them guidance concerning the issues that were confronting the church which he had most likely learned from Epaphroditus and others and he would be able to give gratitude to them for all of their kindness. Now you get all of that in Philippians chapter 2 in verse 26 and following.
He stresses in verse 11 that he was not in need. He says he is thankful for showing of concern. I don't need this stuff. The reason I don't need it, he is going on to tell, He didn't need anything really because he had learned the ability to live with or without the provisions.
Is this some kind of other worldly existence? No it is not. He wants them but he will be fine if they don't come. Because he has learned the secret of being content whether his needs are met or not met. Whether they are met in abundance or whether they are met sparingly. He has transcended into a dimension of living - he is a real man in a real environment.
The Secret
Now that is the setting, let's go to the secret. What is the secret? What is this mystery? What is this enigma? Well verse 12 gives this to us:
12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
In other words his life experiences were such that he had known what it was to be warm and fed and he knew what it was to be cold and naked. Not everyone is able to say this not everyone has lived on both sides of the street. Not everyone knows how the other half lives, but Paul did.
Paul came from a time in his life where he enjoyed plenty and then gave it up to live on the road perhaps under a tree with a sleeping bag. He must have thought back and said I used to have a place to stay, it was so comfortable. How about when Lydia invited me to her house -- that was a very nice. I hate it here -- I wish I were there. Then he must have taken himself in check.
You know what, that is not the issue. Indeed, if I think like that then my life is going to be roller coaster ride constantly. I am either going to be intoxicated by wonderful things or I am going to be overwhelmed by the absence of wonderful things. Either way I am going to be neutralized.
I am never going to be able to serve Christ because on the one hand I will so enamored by all of this stuff and I will not be able to live without it or when I down here under the tree I'll be so ticked off that I don't have it that I won't be able to get up and preach sermons anymore.
He must have struggled and said to himself I'm going to play the middle ground here somewhere. I need to learn the secret there must be a secret to this. To do this and to do this and to have my contentment calibrated by something other than these two experiences. That is the challenge, isn't it?
When you are flying and you get bumped up to first class, you say this is nice. Then on the return flight you have to sit in coach. You have to walk past 8 people sitting in first class with a juice or coffee. You think to yourself - hey I belong there not back here. Look at them, smug, sipping their drinks. You instinctively dislike them. But he is just a business person going to an appointment. What is your problem? See this is uncomfortable, this is challenging.
Frankly, we are as messed up on this as the world is. We cannot talk to the world about contentment, most of us, because we are so discontented.
Paul is not saying keep a stiff upper lip. Paul's statement is grounded in the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 13:
13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
The secret of contentment is a result of bowing my heart my mind to the will of God no matter the conditions that I face. Again, contentment is bowing my heart my mind to the will of God no matter the conditions that I face. That is why when you see contented people that they are so striking. These people are not overwhelmed by poverty nor are they intoxicated by plenty.
Noticed that contentment is learned. It is learned. Discover contentment the old fashion way and learn it. You cannot go to a meeting, get tapped on the head and walk away contented, you must learn it.
The Significance
What is the significance for us? Let me give you a couple of things.
1. Christian contentment is independent of my circumstances.
Happiness is dependent upon what happens, but joy is something that is independent of chances and changes of our world. Until we understand this our lives will be like riding a roller coaster high and then down in the depths. And our life will continue to go this way. It is in realizing that having this or that does not bring contentment, it is in realizing that contentment is found somewhere else.
The second notion:
2. Christian contentment is grounded in our union with Christ.
It is the relationship with Jesus that establishes the Christian contentment. Know Christ then you can do things through him.
You may be thinking - You have been talking a long time but you have not told me one thing I am supposed to do. It is not the doing, it is the knowing of Christ that makes this possible. So what you need to do is to know Christ, inside out and inside in. You can't just jump to doing things through Christ. You must know Christ before you can do things through Christ.
Why am I so discontented? It is because I don't know Christ. If I knew Christ and how wonderful he is I would be contented. To be contented I must radically transform how I view my circumstances. I have to sadly conclude that I really don't know him in that way. But you may be different from me.
Let me just add to this - Christian contentment is the fruit of an ever deepening relationship with Jesus. The more I know of Christ the more contented I become. The more things of this earth lose its value. Whether I have an office with a window or I haven't attained the right status. Whether I'm esteemed as someone important in this assembly or not. By the way, if you value a position of authority in a congregation you are not there yet. When we gravel after this stuff, when we are intoxicated by the desire for authority, we are saying that we really don't know Christ.
Christian contentment is learned in the school of God's plan. If you think about it, the ability that you have, the gifts that you have are divinely provided to you from God by His appointment. I'm not talking about the gifts you and I might self deceivingly think we have. For instance some of the people who try out for American Idol are not gifted singers but they think they are. This is about being content with the genuine gifts that God has provided without wanting for more.
Contentment is the direct fruit of having no higher ambition than to belong to the Lord and to be entirely at his disposal. Does this describe Paul? You think that out.
Father forgive us for our discontentment. We want to learn this secret. Help us to yield completely to Jesus. To be clay in the potters hands ready to do and be what he want me to be. May grace and peace rest upon us and guide us towards this wonderful discovery today and ever more. In Jesus name, Amen.
Contributors: Alistair Begg; Indiucky