I am attempting to write about a rare jewel that I am working in myself. I have tried to find in many people unfortunately there are not many with it. But it is quiet important for us believers who live in a world filled with mad rat race and frustration. I call this the rare jewel ‘contentment’. Rare things are precious and costly.
Whatsoever condition Paul faced in his life he showed a sweet spirit of contentment. He never sought after the things of this world. Whatever concerns befell him or whether he had little or nothing he learned to be content in all situations of life. (Phil.4:11-13). To be content in every condition of life is a great art. One can claim to be very spiritual yet can fail to be content in life. One can manifest the works of his faith and yet fail to have this rare jewel, contentment. Paul says ‘godliness with contentment is of great gain’ (I Tim. 6:6).
Contentment is not just holding our tongue from speaking but an inward submission of our soul and spirit to God and remains in the joy of the Lord (Psalms 62:1, 2; Habakkuk 3:17-19). For some outwardly there can be great calmness and peace but inside it is like a raging sea, great disturbance, vexation, bitterness and strife. Judas showed great peace from outside as he kissed the Lord Jesus Christ but inwardly he was burning, filled with guilt and it was eating away like a cancer. This inward contentment is opposed to murmuring, complains, frettings, discouragements, rebellion even when God disciplines us.
If the attainment of true contentment were as easy as keeping quiet outwardly, it would not need much learning. It might be had with less strength and skill than an Apostle possessed, yea, less than an ordinary Christian has or may have. Therefore, there is certainly more to it than can be attained by common gifts and the ordinary power of reason that many people desire for. It is a business of the heart.
True contentment comes as we learn to trust in the ‘El-Shaddai’, the Almighty, the all Sufficient One’. We are so inadequate in ourselves and all our human helps or the world cannot fully satisfy us. We may think it is physical and material things that satisfy us. There is a soul in us that cries out for more than material things and there is a spirit that longs for something more than all these things. It is only as we trust in the Lord and wait only for Him despite of the situations we learn to be content within ourselves. Our sufficiency comes from God (II Corinthians. 3:5). Christ is the fountain and the source of all things because He is the mediator between God and man, there is no other advocate for mankind on the earth. He is the One who completed the work of redemption for mankind on the cross. He is the One who opened the way to God the Father to us and the windows of heavens for us. And the cross and the open tomb is the assurance for our contentment in all situations and it gives us a sense of victory and the resurrection power to overcome all the situations in our lives. Contentment is a heart condition that develops that as we trust in the El-Shaddai.
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