The Chase after Contentment: Part 1

Maybe, if you are anything like me, you have struggled at one time or another with feeling content in where God has you. Maybe it is the season of life that you are in. Maybe it’s the place where you live, the people you live with, or the places where you work and serve. Maybe it is the condition of the shell you live in. Or maybe it is the unnerving unknown-ness that constantly knaws at you, planting microscopic doubts of God’s love and control in your deepest subconscious. If you are anything like me, you know the mud-splatters on the sides of the pit of discontentment well. Is there a way out??

Our friend the apostle Paul didn’t always know what was coming next. Will the executioner come for me tomorrow? Will I be given a trial? Will they move me to a filthier, more dingy prison soon? Is there even one tiny, tiny hope of my being released?

Yet Paul penned the courageous words found in Philippians 4:11-13. Where did such bravery and assurance come from? Was Paul a “super Christian” who knew how to rise above the fears and doubts that ordinary Christians face? Did he draw from some power source that is unavailable to the average believer? Did he know something that we don’t?

Notice that this passage contains two key phrases: 1) I have learned, and 2) I am instructed. The apostle Paul, though a giant of a man of God, had to learn what it was to walk through the unknowns of life unbothered and unscathed. To be content no matter his current situation or circumstances. God had to show him how. What comfort for those of us not schooled to the nth degree in the Word like Paul was! Paul had much earthly knowledge, but until God revealed to him the celestial knowledge of how to live content, he searched. Just like you and me.

What did Paul learn? Was there some Earth-shattering secret to lasting contentment? Was there some religious protocol to be followed? Was there a specific prayer to pray? Could he only obtain contentment once he reached a higher spiritual level?

The answer may feel a bit anticlimactic. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

How can we find contentment in Christ?

Verse 19 whispers the answer: But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We can be content in Christ because in Him, we have all we need. He is our Creator, the One Who knows us better than we know ourselves. He is our Sustainer, the One Who will never let us go. He is our Friend that sticks closer than a brother. He is our Wonderful Counselor, guiding us through even the hardest of experiences with supernatural wisdom. And He is the All-Knowing One, to Whom nothing is a mystery.

Do I need to know what is coming next? I want to.

But do I need to? No. Why?

Because I know the One Who knows. His heart throbs for me with the affection of a painter who looks with delight at his beautiful creation. He already sees the finished picture of my life. And He has made it to be beautiful. I can trust that, even though the little blobs of paint on the canvas look pretty ugly to me in this moment. Each blob, each experience, is being manipulated by the Master Artist. The One Whose thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and His ways higher than my ways.

So I take the hand of the One my soul loves and choose to let Him lead me through the dark. Through the misty, hazy paths that seem to twist and turn unendingly. Past the hedges with their scratchy thorns. Even when it hurts. Because, like Jesus, the joy that is set before me makes everything else pale in comparison. Jesus knows–He has walked the path before. And He emerged victorious. In Him…in Him. Here lies my destination–the end of the chase.