Contentment

Being a city boy I am not used to country living. Most of what I know is by stories. One story I have heard often is from the saying the grasser is greener on the other side. I never really experienced this more than driving down Lincoln to my office the other day. There they were, five cattle stretching their necks through the barbed wire fence trying to eat grass which was really out of their reach yet they used every inch of their bodies they could to eat some of the grass on the other side of the fence.

Was the grass greener? Was it tastier than the grass within their reach, right at their feet in the field they walked? Acres of grass with no real effort and yet they were not content to eat it. They had to reach and stretch, even risk injury from the sharp fence to get something they perceived as better.

Contentment. We forget that real contentment is not getting what we do not have but appreciating what we do have. We are malcontent and disgruntled when we cannot get what we want. This has even started fights and wars. The Book of James says in chapter four verses one and two: What about the feuds and struggles that exist among you—where do you suppose they come from? Can’t you see that they arise from conflicting passions within yourselves? You crave for something and don’t get it; you are murderously jealous of what others have and which you cannot possess yourselves; you struggle and fight with one another. Oh how we covet what we do not have and forget to give thanks and be content with what we do have!

Paul the Apostle wrote concerning contentment n the book of Philippians when he wrote how he learned the secret of contentment. He writes in Philippians 4:11: “I have learned to be content with whatever I have…” The word ‘learned’ does not mean he learned this from much study, taking classes or reading a book. Rather he says I have understood from experience how to be content. He continues: “I have learned to have much and I have learned to have little.” Then he writes these wonderful words: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”, endurance, the ability to be content in every and all circumstances!

It is the experiences of life brought to us like a gift from God that builds this kind of contentment, this faith to believe God for everything. To rest and not be anxious.
But what happens when we cannot rest or be content. What happens when we are anxious and stress feels like a huge wave of water overcoming us making us feel as though we were drowning?

Philippians 4: 6 says Do not be anxious… the original meaning in the New Testament is STOP IT, DON’T BE ANXIOUS! Notice the emphasis? It is what is called imperative, a command. Paul goes on to say “Rather, pray, for everything in every situation.” God through Paul does not tell us to do something without giving something else for us to do in return. Pray about everything. EVERYTHING! And see what happens in verse seven? Does God then give us what we want? No! He gives us something even better: “And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus! Guards our hearts and our minds…why? Because we not only feel emotionally discontent, we also think about it and stir it up in our minds like a boiling pot the perceived miscarriage of justice, the thing we desire keeping us from real peace and contentment. Now here is the thing we receive from God, His promise of guarding, or garrisons our hearts and minds. God literally builds a fortress around us to protect us after we acknowledge the truth of our discontent.

How long will He do this? How long will God stand guard over us in our troubles? Hebrews 13:5 tells us that He will never ever leave us and He, God, will never ever forsake us.