Morning By Morning #47

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Philippians 4:11

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

This verse shows us that being content is not our natural propensity. Weeds naturally spring up in the same way covetousness, discontent, and complaining are as natural to us as thorns are to soil. We do not need to plant thistles and brambles—they come up naturally because they are native to earth—and we do not need to teach people to complain, for we complain quickly enough without ever being taught to do so.

In contrast, however, the most precious plants of earth must be cultivated. If we want wheat we must plow the earth and plant seeds, and if we want flowers we must dig a garden and give it continual care. Contentment is one of the precious flowers of heaven, and if we desire it, it must be cultivated. It will not grow in us naturally, for it is the new nature alone that can produce it. Yet even then we must be especially careful and vigilant to cultivate and maintain the grace God has sown in us.

Paul said, “I have learned to be content,” indicating that at one time he did not know how to be content. There was a cost of great effort for him to attain the mystery of that wonderful lesson. No doubt there were times when he thought he had learned it but then he failed again. And when at last he had learned it and could finally say, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances,” he was an old gray-haired man, living at the edge of his grave—a poor prisoner locked up in Nero’s dungeon in Rome.

If we desire to attain this same degree of contentment, we must be willing to endure Paul’s afflictions and to share the dark, cold dungeon with him. Never entertain the notion that you can learn contentment through knowledge alone—this lesson requires discipline. It is not a strength that comes naturally but a science to be acquired gradually over time—something we know from experience.

So, believer, hush your complaining, as natural as it may be, and continue to be a diligent student in the College of Contentment.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Paul is the ultimate example of suffering for followers of Christ. Consider what his school of contentment consisted of:

I have…been in prison…frequently, been flogged…severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received…forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

2 Corinthians 11:23 – 27

Take comfort in this: God gave Paul nothing that is not available to us! “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13).