The Art of Contentment
The art of contentment…like every art has amarteurs and connoisseurs…and those in between. Contentment is almost a stranger to the prosperity gospel because it seems anti-more. Anti- more money, status, luxury etc. But is it?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines being contented as feeling or showing satisfaction with one’s possessions, status, or situation.
Contentment therefore is about being okay with where you are, no matter the circumstances you are facing.
Why is contentment important?
Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.
But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:6-11
i) Contentment is great wealth
The greedy stir up conflict,
but those who trust in the Lord will prosper.
Proverbs 28:25
ii) We shall leave everything here on earth
He said,
“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
and I will be naked when I leave.
The Lord gave me what I had,
and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord!”
Job 1:21
iii) Protection from temptation
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
iv) Keeps you happy
A heart at peace gives life to the body,
but envy rots the bones.
Proverbs 14:30
The Ambitious Contented Crossroad
One of the definitions of ambition is a desire to achieve a particular end.
Is it possible to be content and still have ambition?
Not that I have already attained,or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14
I say yes, it is possible to be content and ambitious. But, you have to qualify your ambition. What is the underlying motive of your ambition?
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4
Your Turn
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:11-13
Contentment is a state of the heart. It does not bow to external forces…it just is.
Are you content?