Learning the Secret of Contentment

            Three siblings were being taken home from a children’s ministry when the youngest child noticed that his older sister had received a sucker.  She was thoroughly enjoying it as the youngest demanded that she share it with him.  When she refused, loud crying and screaming commenced.  The screaming became so loud that finally the older sister relented and gave him the sucker.  Immediately, the screaming stopped.  He was only content when he got what he wanted.

Children are not the only ones who have not learned to be content.  We adults often go through life feeling that we are missing out on something that we deserve. We want bigger houses, newer cars, and better jobs.  Covetousness rises when we look at others who have more money, more expensive clothes, and more toys than we do.  We may not scream and throw a fit, but our discontent breeds a gnawing emptiness. 

We need to learn how to be content even when we don’t get what we want.  The Apostle Paul had learned the secret of contentment in Phil. 4:11,12.  He tells us: “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”.  He learned that everything we have or don’t have comes from a loving Heavenly Father.  God desires us to be satisfied with what we have received.  Even if we suffer need and have to go without, we are assured that we still have Him.

            Contentment does not come naturally.  We are sinners by nature, and we want what we want.  However, God desires to take us to the school of contentment.  God taught Paul that whether he was hungry or full, had nothing or plenty, he could be completely satisfied.  God wants to teach all His children the secret of contentment.  Even if we have nothing, we still have Jesus. And Jesus is enough.