Everyone wants to be content. There is not a soul on the planet that enjoys feeling unsatisfied and anxious. So, people try to attain contentment through various means and methods.
Some look to the acquisition of a certain object or good as their hope of finally being content: “I hate my car and if I’m just able to get a new car that’s reliable, I’ll be content.”
Some see a change of circumstances as their gateway to contentment: “When I get married and start having kids, I’ll be content.”
Still others try to find their contentment by removing things from their lives and trying to live as minimalist as possible. Think of Buddhist monks who own very little and spend their days in their forms of meditation.
In addition to those, some look within thinking that they have to first make peace with themselves and be content with who they are. When they finally reach that point, that’s when they will be content in all other areas of life.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with desiring change, particularly when you’re in the midst of a trial, if you are looking for your contentment in a change of your external circumstances, you’re not going to find it.
Likewise, those who are trying to root their contentment in themselves are going to remain discontent. Once you achieve what you’re looking for—whether that is a better acceptance of self or getting that new car—there may be a temporary feeling of satisfaction like after a good meal, but you’ll eventually be hungry again.
This is because self, stuff, and circumstances cannot provide true contentment. Why? Because we were not made to find our satisfaction in those things.
Think of Solomon. He spent the majority of his adult life trying to find contentment, satisfaction, and joy in everything under the sun. He tried to find it in his job, in his possessions, in chasing physical pleasure, in anything and everything that he could get his hands on. And yet he ultimately could not be satisfied.
He remained discontent and bounced from one thing to the next until he finally realized the error of his ways. While it is true that we are physical beings created for life on this earth and are able to find some satisfaciton in the the things of this life, we not merely physical beings. We were not created to find the fullness of our satisfaction in the things we experience in the paltry seventy or eighty years that we live on this planet.
We are not just physical beings but also spiritual, created with eternal souls and designed by God to find our ultimate satisfaction in him alone.
It’s no wonder that the unbelieving world is so discontent. We live in an age with a vastly higher average standard of living than ever before in human history, we know comforts and conveniences that even science-fiction authors of the previous generations couldn’t dream up, and we have more rights and liberties than any previous generation.
Yet we live in the most discontent and grumbling generation since Moses’ day in the wilderness. Why? Because so many of us are searching for our contentment in things that cannot give us contentment. As Moses prayed, for himself and the people of Israel, we need to pray for a satisfaction in God.
If we are satisfied in the steadfast love of God, which is seen preeminently in Christ, then we’ll be content. As Paul learned, if we have Christ and are rooting our contentment in Him, then our external circumstances won’t matter in regard to our contentment (Phil. 4:11-12). Our fullness is in Christ, and so whether our situation gets better or worse, we’re going to be full regardless. If God in Christ is our all in all, then anything else is just bonus; icing on the cake that we could take or leave.
