Content: August 27, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR TUESDAY AUGUST 27, 2013.

CONTENT

DEFINITION:

Satisfied, ease of mind and happy.

SCRIPTURE:

I have learned that whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Recently we were in the country of Panama. We took a bus for several hours and then rode down a river in a dugout canoe with an outboard motor deep into the rain forest of Panama. We went to an Indian village where we met about 75 Indians. What we found, seeing how they lived, was what we had seen in so many other areas of the world. They had so very little. There was no electricity, no running water, no sewage system and they fished the river for their food. Their homes had thatched roofs with flimsy sides that could be ruined with a strong wind. BUT, they were content. They had very little worries, if any and they seemed so happy that someone came to visit with them and see how they lived. 

In the verse above from Philippians, Paul was writing to the church in Philippi and thanking them for a gift they sent him. In this context he wrote the words that we have written above under scripture. These words show us that contentment is not a natural feeling among most men and women. Contentment is one of the flowers given to us from God. If we are to have contentment in our lives we must cultivate it like a flower.

Covetousness, discontent and murmuring are as natural to men as thorns are to a garden or the soil. We need not sow thistles and thorns because they come naturally to earth. This same reasoning deals with men. We do not need to teach one to complain, be jealous or even to lie about something. This comes naturally to all men.

If we want wheat in our fields, we must plough and sow the wheat. If we want flowers in our garden, we must first have a garden and then be willing to care for it. Contentment must be cultivated in our lives just like flowers in the garden. If we are to have contentment it must be cultivated because it will not grow in us by nature.

It is our new nature in Christ alone that can produce contentment. Even then we must be careful to watch it, maintain it and cultivate it with the grace that God has sown in us. Paul says in this verse that he has learned to be content. By saying this he is, inferring that at one time in his life he did not know how to be content. The learning process cost him some pains in his life.

Before Paul met Jesus it would seem he had it all. He was well educated. He had a highly respected position of a Pharisee. He had every reason to be content. He gave up that life for a life of hardship. Paul described his life in I Corinthians 4:21: “To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.” Does that sound like a life of contentment? Yet it was in hardship that Paul found contentment.

Paul tells us in Philippians 4:12 the secret of being content: “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” 

He wrote to Timothy in I Timothy 6:6-8 that godliness with contentment is great gain. He reminded Timothy that we brought nothing into this world and it is a certainty that we cannot take anything out. So therefore having food and clothing (for today) should give us all the contentment we need.

Now Paul was an old man, locked up in Nero’s dungeon at Rome, writing to the friends he loved in the church at Philippi and telling them that he had LEARNED TO BE CONTENT! We learn from Paul that we cannot be content without going through the process of learning. This takes discipline and will not come naturally. We cannot do it in our own strength but we can do it with God’s strength. In order to be content we must learn not to envy or be jealous or covet what others have. Being content in Christ is an achievement that one must learn and then prayerfully work to attain.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Colossians 3:16.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

PRAYER:

Teach me today to learn to be content in You. Help me to realize that contentment comes through depending on your strength to carry me through the tough valleys in life. Thank You for teaching me daily as I read Your word and communicate to You through prayer.