Psychologist Neil Clark Warren asked a chronically discontent woman what would make her happy. She said, “A better job with better pay, a better boss, a better marriage—and a two-week vacation to Maui.”
Dr. Warren believes many of us are also unfulfilled, empty, and discontent. He says:
Contentment has everything to do with what’s going on inside [of us]. Show me a person who is happy because she is vacationing in Maui, and I’ll show you a person who has only a few days to be happy. But show me a person who has learned to cultivate deep-down contentment and I’ll show you a consistently contented person.
Friend, contentment is cultivated in and through God and His Word. Paul speaks to us about contentment in Philippians 4:11, 12:
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.
Paul learned the secret of being content. What is the secret? We can look a few verses earlier for evidence of what the “secret” is. In verse 4 Paul tells us, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Does this verse say we should rejoice only when things aren’t going well, and we are experiencing pain?
Contentment doesn’t happen automatically. It takes an act of the will to decide to respond to life in a godly manner. If we can learn to “rejoice in the Lord always,” we will be cultivating a life of “deep-down contentment.” We will be spreading God’s secret to living abundantly.
“May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in You; may those who love Your salvation always say, ‘The Lord be exalted!” Psalm 40:16
By Vonette Bright, My Heart in His Hands—Winter
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