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Secret

Have You Learned The Secret?

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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 everything through him who gives me strength. (NIV) Philippians 4:11-13

Most of us would say that sounds nice, sounds great actually. And I, like many others, often thought that Paul was just nicely saying wealth and possessions weren’t the most important thing to him. But, he is saying more than that. . .he is telling us he has a secret that most of us do not possess. . .contentment.

I’ve been watching myself and others, looking for a “glow,” a constant joy and passion within myself and others. That’s what I think contentment would produce in a person. And I have to say, I’ve seen very little contentment.

Most of the time our contentment is dependent upon our circumstances. Our contentment goes up and down depending on our successes, our failures, what we have, what others have, and how others see us. Some of us are content most of the time, some of us just some of the time, and others rarely ever. But, few sound as content as Paul. Few have learned his, and Christ’s secret. Honestly, I have not myself.

Our passion for life, for God, for joy, for faith, and for hope goes up and down, varying with how well life seems to be going for us. One moment we are feeling great, the next we are as low as we’ve ever been. We never seem to have enough. We are constantly looking at others and comparing ourselves to them. We never have enough in ourselves, we never stop comparing, we are never satisfied. . .and so we are not content.

Written by Carling Laird used with permission

So how content are you? Is your contentment dependent upon your successes? your failures? what you have? what others have? what others lack? how others see you? Have you learned Paul’s secret of being content in any and every situation? What has taught you the most about contentment?

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I Am Learning To Be Content

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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 everything through him who gives me strength. (NIV) Philippians 4:11-13

God says in Isaiah 29:16 “‘You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!. . .Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing’?” That’s what many of us do. I laugh often at how women with curly hair want it straight, and women with straight hair want it curly. . .why? Because we’ve missed being content in ourselves. We are always making comparisons with how we look, how we are doing, what we have with what others look like, what others are doing, what others have. . .and we find ourselves living with a lack of joy, a lack of passion, and certainly without the secret of contentment. I think we are missing what Paul had learned.

In the passage above, Paul isn’t just talking about wealth. He’s writing about whether we are content with God alone. We will never be content if we base our contentment on others or on our circumstances. The secret doesn’t lie there. You are never going to have enough, you will never be perfect, the people around you will never be perfect. . .we are waiting for heaven for that, and we long for that. But, while we are here God wants us to want Him, the Blesser, more than we want His blessings.

It was in the Blesser that Paul found contentment. When Paul tells us we can do all things through Christ, he is simply telling us the secret he has learned in verse 13. We not only need to know God and be content in Him alone, we also need to be content in us, content with the potter’s creation.

There is one thing I’d like to hear most of all when I reach Heaven, and that is, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” I can’t think of anything better than that. But, you know what I want to be able to say while I am here on this earth, five, ten, twenty years from now, I’d like to be able to say like Paul that I had learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, that I had found all things in Christ. I want a passion, a joy, a peace in me that does not only remain for a moment. I’m working on noticing when I am not content, when I am looking for satisfaction other than from God, when I am comparing. . .and I am trying to remember the secret. . .”I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Written by Carling Laird used with permission.

How have you learned the secret of being content?

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