"I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content." Phil 4:11-12

This is one of the most difficult things in life . . . to be content. I love what Spurgeon wrote: "These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. Paul says, "I have learned . . . to be content;" as much as to say, he did not know how at one time. It cost him some pains to attain to the mystery of that great truth. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke down. And when at last he had attained unto it, and could say, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," he was an old, grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave--a poor prisoner shut up in Nero's dungeon at Rome."*

It took Paul a lifetime to learn to be content. I think it's a daily struggle to dismiss the values of our culture and search for something of greater worth. Spurgeon calls contentment a science. It is something to be acquired gradually; something to be learned. Learning is fueled by desire and discipline: a longing for the knowledge of God and the will to discover it.

"I have learned . . . to be content."

Contentment is power--power to dismiss the opinions of people, and embrace the heart of God.



*PC Study Bible - Biblesoft