The Joy of Contentment

Years ago someone said, “Sorrows come to stretch out spaces in our hearts for joy.” I am coming to believe that even little disappointments, inconveniences, as well as very painful experiences come into our lives for that purpose. God wants us to have hearts filled with joy!

In a time of transition in our lives, we were living in a small mobile home. I was very discontent with the tight quarters with no promise of a change anytime soon. There were also no other children in the area to play with our children. We had some friends who were home on furlough from the mission field and their children needed a place to play for the day, so one Saturday I arranged to pick up the children so they could all play together. When the Dad came to get them at the end of the day, I was complaining to him about our cramped space. He looked at me and said, “Dianne, don’t you remember that Jesus did not have a place to lay His head?” It was like a knife had gone into my heart! Even though it hurt at the time, God used that encounter to begin the process of teaching me contentment (and, by-the-way, it is still going on today!) Years later my husband and I were speaking at a conference where this man was also a speaker. I thanked him for how God used his reminder so God could bring me to the point where I could share my message for the day: “The Beauty of Contentment”. But I am still learning!

Webster defines contentment: Happy enough with what one has or is; not desiring something more or different. Charles Kelly in an article in Discipleship Journal says, “Christian contentment is the God-given ability to be satisfied with the loving provision of God in any and every situation.” Hebrews 13:5 in the Amplified Bible says this: “Let your character or moral disposition be free from the love of money—including greed, avarice (too much desire to get and keep money), lust, and craving for earthly possessions—and be satisfied (content) with your present circumstances and with what you have; for He (God) has said, I will not in any way fail you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless, not forsake, nor let you down, relax my hold on you—assuredly not!” Ah! That’s the reason we can be content!

Notice that it is a choice, ‘Let your character or moral disposition be free…’ We must allow the Lord to BE who He is in our lives. Mark tells us in chapter 6 that Jesus took the food that the people had and gave thanks. He gave it to them and “they ate and were fully satisfied”—so contentment can be something we feel. But Jesus tells us in Mark 4: 19 that contentment is also the absence of craving earthly things.

Let’s look at some signs of discontentment.
Wrong attitudes that bring on murmuring and complaining, (Num. 11:1 ‘when the people complained it displeased the Lord…’);
a critical spirit - Romans 14:4 Phillips ‘who are you to criticize the servant of somebody else, especially when that somebody else is God…’;
or comparisons - John 21:21, Jesus told Peter to not worry about John, He said, ‘you follow me’. 2 Cor. 10:12 tells us that comparing ourselves among ourselves ‘is not wise’. We may have greater expectations than what God gives in material wealth or relationships.

I am slowly learning that God never intended that we would find our contentment or satisfaction or fulfillment in any other person or place or thing on the face of the earth, but ONLY in Him. People will fail us, circumstances will disappoint us, but God never will. We may find a measure of fulfillment but God will not allow anything to take His place in our lives.

Discontentment can also be a wrong focus. We can look only for what we can get rather than what we can give, in possessions as well as relationships. We can also get caught up in not enjoying what we do have because of focusing on what we don’t have. All of these things draw our hearts away from God. Do you wonder why God gave all those examples in the Old Testament? Romans 15:4 tells us that ‘whatever was written in the past was written to teach us…’ And we know that whenever the Israelites kept their focus on God, things went well--as well as they could in the desert! But when they took their eyes off of God’s promises they lost hope.

Disappointment or wrong expectations can be signs of being discontent. These happen in the daily activities of life—you had planned to take a trip and plans were cancelled, you expected your husband to do something for you and he didn’t—your child failed in a class at school—you didn’t get that position you wanted.

So what are some keys to contentment?

One big key is realizing it is a process—we are to 'pursue right living' according to 1 Tim. 6:11. Secondly, we need to keep our focus on God.

I have observed four essentials for keeping a right focus:

1) Knowing God, it must be a continual priority (Isa. 43:10);

2) Fearing God, (Isa. 33:6);

3) Believing God, (2 Sam. 22:31);

4) Praising God, (Psa. 145: 16, 17 and Psa. 139). The exciting thing about praise is that it releases our hearts to embrace an eternal perspective—to see Him in our daily experiences.

Contentment has a whole lot to do with choosing to see His hand in everything that happens in our lives. When we do, we will be content that He, indeed, does have our best interest in mind. In her book Surrender, Nancy Leigh De Moss quotes, “Someone has said that the will of God is exactly what we would choose if we knew what God knows"—which is why we so often find it difficult to embrace His will and why we must learn to ‘trust and obey’. Contentment comes when we embrace His will with all of our heart.