CONTENTMENT

"I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"
"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
"Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever!"
Philippians 4:11-13, 19-20

We should be content with what God has given us, but if we are content in our lifestye that does not please God, we should question it. True contentment is found in Christ and Christ alone. We should not be content in this world because it is not our home.

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.
—Jeremiah Burroughs

If I am a son of God, nothing but God will satisfy my soul; no amount of comfort, no amount of ease, no amount of pleasure,will give me peace or rest. If I had the full cup of all the world's joys held up to me, and could drain it to the dregs, I should still remain thirsty if I had not God.... G. A. Studdert Kennedy

Spurgeon said, "He that deserves nothing should be content with anything," and he is so right. we deserve nothing but hell.

In September I did a blog on being a "SERVANT" and I shared a story of a Chinese man. When I think back about his story, I see a man that was content with where the Lord had him. It humbles me to think I complain in my situations at times when I am not content. In humility we can find contentment.

Here is his story that is worth sharing again...
A few years ago my husband had the privilege to preach on the subject of "Humility". He shared a story of a Chinese man that was put in jail because of his faith in Christ. He was put in the hole to work. Every day he would have to shovel the excrements all day long. He did this daily for all the time he spent in prison without complaint. A few years after he was released from this hell hole, he ran into one the guards from the prison. The guard asked him in bewilderment "How is it you spent all that time in that slop and come out of there everyday with a content look on your face and never complained?" The man answered, " Every morning when the machines were turned on, it would be the time I would be able to recite verses from the Bible out loud and sing the hymns I had learned and fellowship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." "It was those times while I was in prision I cherished the most!"What a servant of Christ! He worked in such a lowely job and found joy in it! Jesus was a fine example of Servant hood.

1TI 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
When we serve God we will feel contenment because it is Him that will get the glory and praise.

Instead of complaining at his lot, a contented man is thankful that his condition and circumstances are no worse than they are. Instead of greedily desiring something more than the supply of his present need, he rejoices that God still cares for him. Such an one is "content" with such as he has (Heb. 13:5).
—Arthur W. Pink

Cristina