Contentment

A few years ago, a survey found Britons were less happy than in the 1950s – despite the fact that we are three times richer. The proportion of people saying they were “very happy” had fallen from 52% in 1957 to just 36%.1 Whether or not money can buy you love, it seems it cannot buy you happiness.

All around us we see a society that is deeply dissatisfied and obsessed with getting ahead; whether it’s the next career move, making home improvements or pushing our children to do well at school. And Christians (both as individuals and as churches) are not immune from this. Why is it that we are so quick to grumble about our leaders when we do not like the style of preaching, rather than being grateful for the man the Lord has sent to minister to us? And when things go wrong why is our first thought: ‘Lord that’s not fair!’ rather than being thankful that things are not worse?

Of course, there are some things Scripture would urge us not to be content about, for example, our sin and our knowledge of Christ (Phil 3.12-16), and we should not be negligent in using our God-given gifts and abilities (Mtt 25). Nor should we not try to improve our circumstances if God gives us opportunity (1 Cor 7.21). But in the areas of prosperity and the circumstances of our lives, many of us do suffer from discontentment. The aim of this article is to convince you that being content is
actually a good thing; and not a second best for those who are not as successful as they want in this world. After all, the apostle Paul regarded contentment rather highly (1 Tim 6.6).

In our frustration with our lack of contentment, we may be tempted to think that contentment is something you can do nothing about (‘I’m just not a contented person!’), or that we must simply wait for the Holy Spirit to grant us contentment. We are in danger of forgetting how Paul describes his own experience. In Philippians, writing from prison he writes, ‘Not that I am speaking of being
in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.’ (Phil 4.11). Clearly Paul thought contentment is something that must be learnt.

To help us learn contentment, we will be taking a short lesson from the book ‘The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment’, by the puritan Jeremiah Burroughs.

To read the full Cross+Way article, click here.