Discovering Lasting Contentment
Do you consider yourself moody? Are you someone who fluctuates like the choppy ocean, rising and falling as the tides change? Or instead, are you unchanging like a calm sea, flat with hardly any movement? While it is true that some of us are choppy oceans and others of us are calm seas, it is also true that we all have some degree of mood swings. Our mood swings are primarily driven by our changing circumstances.
Our contentment also fluctuates with our mood. Contentment is different than happiness. Happiness is simply a momentary experience whereas contentment is a long-lasting feeling accompanied by peacefulness and satisfaction. When our circumstances are favorable, we tend to be content, but as soon as life does not go our way, contentment often turns to discomfort, that feeling of being unsettled and restless. Our mood drops.
Contentment that comes from people or things only lasts as long those people or things are good to us and for us. Those ever-changing mood swings seem unavoidable. But one of the many benefits of having a real relationship with Jesus is that we do not have to live that way. No matter how crazy that sounds, it is possible. We can learn to be content in all things.
The apostle Paul wrote that he had a thorn in his flesh. I do not think that Paul literally meant a sharp-pointed part of a plant had penetrated his skin, causing pain. Instead, I believe Paul was saying that he had some sort of affliction, one he does not describe in any detail other than to say it was a thorn. He pleaded with God three times for this affliction to be removed, but God failed to remove it and said this to Paul – “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9a).
Not the answer Paul probably wanted to hear. Not the answer we want either when we take our afflictions, our struggles, our crappy life circumstances, our discontent, to God. But look how Paul responds – “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9b-10).
I believe Paul was saying to himself, and to you and me, to rely on God’s wisdom and strength in our times of discontent, dark moods, sufferings, thorns. It comes down to submitting our circumstances to God and trusting that He is working out his plan in and through them.
In Romans, Paul also tells us this – “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).
Rejoice in my sufferings, you have got to be kidding me. The Greek word used here for rejoice is not our modern understanding of the word, to show great joy or delight. Instead, it is pointing to a confidence that we can have, knowing that God is able to use our unfavorable circumstances to help us mature in our faith, making us more like Jesus.
So, when you find yourself with unfavorable circumstances, submit it to the Lord and trust that He is helping you grow in the contentment that only comes from Him. It would sure be nice if it was voilà, and just like that, perfect holy contentment forever. But I have not experienced it like that. It is a journey. The more I submit and trust, the more lasting contentment I find, even in this discontented world in which we live.
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