Learning Contentment and Strength Through Christ’s Grace

A definition of Christian contentment is defined as a virtue not rooted in self-sufficiency or external circumstances, but in finding sufficiency solely in Jesus Christ and trusting, keyword trusting, in God's unwavering goodness and sovereignty, regardless of life's trials. [00:09:46] (23 seconds)  #SufficientInChrist

For the Stoics, contentment was human achievement. For Paul, it was a divine gift, a sufficiency found in Christ alone, not in self. So for Paul, strength was not independence. It was rather being dependent on God, and it was a trust in him. It was drawing on a power source that goes way beyond anything we have within ourselves. [00:10:38] (26 seconds)  #DivineStrengthNotSelf

We were made to depend on God's strength, to be filled with his power, and to reflect his likeness through it. Paul captures this in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7, when he writes, But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Maybe another way to see this is jars of clay being a reflecting human weakness is like us being compared to like a Coke bottle. And that this is the power of God. And we need God's strength in that finite and fragile human beings. And that isn't a flaw to hide from. It's actually just the open space, if we let it, where God's power is revealed. [00:11:14] (44 seconds)  #PowerInWeakness

After being encountered by Christ, his eyes were open to the reality that being teachable was a fundamental part of his faith. Jesus, as in the New Testament, calls his disciples, calls his followers disciples, literally translated as learners. So this, begs the question, are we teachable? [00:12:55] (25 seconds)  #TeachableFaith

However, I believe Paul's secret was adopting the posture of a humble learner, learning to trust God in the highs and lows of life, right? I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances. So learning, trusting, dependence, and contentment is built at the speed of relationship. [00:14:20] (25 seconds)  #LearningTrustingContentment

If we're going to trust God in the future, we're going to learn contentment. It's going to take some time. It's going to take time building trust with God, learning to trust Christ in every situation by remembering what he did in the past, paying attention to what he's doing in the present, and trusting in his future activity. [00:15:21] (20 seconds)  #TrustBuiltInTime

As followers of Jesus, we are not spiritual consumers. Paul reminds us in Philippians 2 that we are called to follow Christ through humility, service, and a shared life. But that's difficult. By nature, we lean towards self-protection, comparison, self-sufficiency, comfort, resentment. Christian contentment can go against our flesh, but contentment, as Paul teaches, is not about just getting the circumstances that we want. It's about developing a quiet trust in God within whatever circumstances that we are in. And that type of trust is shaped in community. [00:30:56] (51 seconds)  #CommunityShapesTrust

Contentment is personal, yes, because what I, as I just detailed the things that I thought about my life, maybe some things that you thought about your life look radically different than mine. So, each of our stories and struggles look different, but contentment is not individualistic. God never intended us to learn that trust alone, and we need one another to remind us of God's faithfulness and his love for us when we can't see it ourselves. [00:31:46] (34 seconds)  #TogetherInContentment

Have you ever thought of yourself in a different scenario? You think, if I had his job, I wouldn't be frustrated. All the time. If I had her personality, I'd have better friendships. If I drove that nice SUV, life would just feel easier. If I had a spouse like theirs, we wouldn't have these problems. And I just saw myself just living in a lot of different scenarios because the one that I was in just felt so hard. [00:36:28] (33 seconds)  #GodsSchoolroomLife