Choose Contentment

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

A legend has it that a king was looking for contentment. His advisors told him that if he wore the shirt of a contented man for a week, his discontent would go away. So, he sent his men throughout the land to get the shirt from a contented man. His men searched high and low, but returned empty handed. The king was furious. In their defense, they told the king, “We found a contented man, but he didn’t own a shirt.”  

Pastor Ray Stedman wrote, “Contentment is not having all that you want. True contentment is wanting only what you have.” G.K. Chesterton said nearly the same thing, “There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.” Amen to that. It teaches us that contentment is something we choose. 

The Apostle Paul didn’t live a charmed life. When you read about him in Scripture, it becomes evident that he was called to suffer for Christ [Acts 9.16]. Still, he “learned how to be content … in every situation” [Philippians 4.11-12].

How did he do it? How could he find contentment experiencing all the things he mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11.23-28? His immediate response, “…through Christ who gives me strength” [Philippians 4.13].

Regardless of our circumstances, we can also experience calm contentment based in the power that Christ provides. In Jesus, we have all we need [2 Corinthians 12.9].

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4.11-13