Contentment, I love the sound of that word. There’s just something about it that strikes an image of peaceful resting in my mind. In the last few months I have wrestled more with this verb than usual and really that’s what it has been, a wrestling match. Picture me on the floor trying to pin down contentment and all the while what has been needed is simply for me to stop resisting and let contentment pin me.
Never mind that my discontent has been petty. The more time I spend condemning myself for the pettiness of my discontentment issues the less time I spend in surrender. When a spirit of discontent comes upon me it must be dealt with no matter how petty. It is an inner struggle affecting my soul and threatening my walk with Christ. Is that not enough to take it seriously? If it is over silly superficial things or if it is over dramatic heart wrenching situations, the command is to be content and the promise from God’s word is that it is possible because we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength Phil 1:3.
There is so much to be said on this topic. My short blog post will barely scratch the surface so I recommend these things that have been helpful to me.
First, read God’s word regularly. I find that the more I get to know God through his word the more I can trust him to be the good, wise, merciful, and sovereign God that he is. Just this morning I finished reading Jeremiah. What a blessing that book has been to me. It ends in a somewhat peculiar manner. After chapter after chapter about God’s impending judgment, there is a story about Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin was the king of Judah living in captivity in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had died and was succeeded by his son who was named Evil-merodach (don’t let the name fool you). Evil, I’ll call him for short, had a strange compassion upon Jehoiachin who had been sitting in prison from the time he was 18 until he was 37. According to Matthew Henry, who I consulted as I realized I didn’t know who Jehoichin was, Jehoiachin had been imprisoned as a young prince. Imagine that – from a life of privilege and luxury for 18 years to a life in a Babylonian prison for 19 years. Suddenly you are sprung from prison and treated kindly by the king. You are given a place of honor and provided for all the remaining days of your life. I like what Matthew Henry says about this story:
“Let those whose afflictions have been lengthened out encourage themselves with this instance; the vision will at the end speak comfortably; and therefore wait for it. While there is life there is hope. Though we now suffer we shall not always suffer.”
In the same commentary Matthew Henry sums up the book of Jeremiah with several points. One of them is this:
“That no word of God shall fall to the ground, but the event will fully answer the prediction, and the unbelief of man shall not make God’s threatenings, any more than his promises of no effect.”
Besides reading the Bible I recommend doing a general search on the word contentment. Write out each of these verses and commit them to memory or hang them where you’ll be sure to review them regularly.
Listening to messages on contentment can also be very beneficial. Here are a few that have been helpful to me in recent months.
• Contentment – A Peaceful Resting Place, by Kim Erickson
• Satisfied with Favor, by Delaine Gamache
• The Quest For Contentment, by Dave Harvey
One last thing that I have found helpful is reading books on the subject. There are many but here are two of my favorites:
1. The Art of Divine Contentment by Thomas Watson and
2. Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot
Wherever we are in life, no matter what size the pebble in our shoe that causes the discontent, we are always treated better than we deserve because of Jesus!