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A Matter of Faith

Content in the new year: Part 1

We make resolutions mostly because we are not content with the way things are, or the way we are.
What is contentment?

Paul the Apostle wrote, "I don't say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am."

How could he make such a bold statement? Because he knew that contentment lies not in what he has, but in whose He is. When I come into a relationship with God through His son, Jesus Christ, I understand whose I am and what I have.

A lack of contentment causes me to look horizontally - at what others have so I am never satisfied. Contentment invites me to look vertically - at God. When I look in His direction, regardless of my possessions or lack thereof or my own status, I know that He is enough.
Contentment comes when we can honestly say with the Apostle Paul, "I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret [of being content]—whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me."
Contentment isn't denying one's feelings about wanting and desiring what we can't have. However, it is the exhibition of freedom from being controlled by those feelings.
Contentment isn't pretending things are right when they are not, but instead, it displays the peace that comes from knowing that God is bigger than any problems and that He works them all out for our good.
Contentment isn't a feeling of well-being contingent on keeping circumstances under control, but instead it promotes a joy in spite of circumstances, looking to God, who never changes.
Contentment is not based on external circumstances, but rather on an internal source. Contentment is of the heart.
The majority of people in our society is like thermometers and suffers from pretend happiness - a counterfeit high that quickly evaporates.

One hopes the next superficial satisfaction will last, but external happiness is like cotton candy. It's sweet for a moment and dissolves an instant later.

A person who is happy because she is vacationing in Hawaii is a person who has only a few days to be happy. But a person who has learned to cultivate deep-down contentment will be a consistently joyful person wherever they are.

Most people thirst for what the Apostle Paul had: enduring contentment, a deep-down, soul-satisfying contentment. That kind of contentment can only come from within.

Contentment is always an inside job. It has everything to do with what is going on inside you, not what is going on outside. It has only one source. That source is found in a soul-satisfying relationship with our Heavenly Father that cares for us.

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