Satisfied

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

Philippians 4:11

How content are you? What does it take for you to be content? Are millennials less content than my generation (baby boomers)? I believe the answer to that question is an emphatic no. It seems like the older generation is always complaining about the younger generation. I found the following quote interesting and humorous. “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” You know who this quote is attributed to? Socrates (469-399 B.C.).

Every generation has the same struggle- how to be content. A major problem is that we do not know the difference between our needs and our wants. In actual practice, virtually everything has become a “need.” So, we need better jobs, nicer cars, and bigger homes. Some women feel they need careers outside the home. We become like a hamster running around and around on a wheel and going nowhere, desperately chasing contentment that is always just out of reach. Even some churches have begun to build their ministries around people’s “felt needs.”

We need to learn what our needs are and to be content with what the Lord has blessed us with. We can look to Paul as an example of a man who knew contentment in the Lord. Though his situation was extremely difficult, Paul was not discontent. It did not matter that he was a prisoner, living in a small apartment, chained to a Roman soldier, subsisting on a sparse diet. None of that affected his contentment, because he was satisfied with what little he had. His contentment was not affected by his physical deprivations. Paul knew that the chief end of man is not to have his needs met, but to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Because of that, he was satisfied with whatever God graciously granted him. As he wrote to Timothy, “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” (1 Timothy 6:8)

John MacArthur writes,

The more money and possessions one has, the more complex life becomes. The preacher in Ecclesiastes 5:11 mused, “When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on?” Material things demand time and energy that could be better spent on eternal realities.

When difficult times came, Paul remained content because he was satisfied with little. The supreme goal of a believer’s life must be to love and glorify God, not accumulate material possessions. As we love and glorify God, He may choose to bless us with riches. We are to deal with them from the same motive of loving and glorifying Him.

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark