Have You Learned to Be Content?

Heart's Ease pictures courtesy of Google image

 I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content (Philippians 4:11)

I don’t think of myself as a discontented person, or as an envious one, but sometimes I catch myself hankering after something that can’t be or after something I don’t have, like…

I wish my writing ministry had started earlier, or I wish my writing platform was bigger like so-and-so’s…

and then I realize I am being foolish and vain, and that such thoughts are counterproductive.

I need to be content with my life and content with what I can do for the glory of God.

Paul wrote the words I’ve quoted above from a dungeon.  He suffered many trials and tribulations.  We couldn’t imagine the horrors, yet he wrote that he’d learned to be content.  Paul tells us what he had suffered in his letter to the Corinthians.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, 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 fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 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. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.  2 Corinthians 11: 25-28 NIV

In light of all he suffered, I am astonished by his faith, perseverance, and usefulness to the Kingdom of God.

St. Francis de Sales wrote: “Great deeds may not always come our way, but at all times we can do little deeds with perfection, that is, with great love.”

The following story touches on this theme.  I first read this in Streams in the Desert, and then I found it online at the site listed below.

“A story is told of a king who went into his garden one morning, and found everything withered and dying. He asked an oak that stood near the gate what the trouble was. He found that it was sick of life and determined to die, because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine. The pine was out of heart because it could not bear grapes like the vine. The vine was going to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and have as fine fruit as the pomegranate.

And so on throughout the garden. Coming to a heartsease, the king found its bright face lifted up as full of cheerfulness as ever. Said the king: "Well, heartsease, I am glad to find one brave little flower in this general discouragement and dying. You don't seem one bit disheartened." "No, your majesty, I know I am of small account; but I concluded you wanted a heartsease when you planted me. If you had wanted an oak or a pine or a vine or a pomegranate, you would have set one out. So I am bound to be the best heartsease that ever I can."

http://www.moreillustrations.com/Illustrations/contentment%202.html

Thank you for visiting Write Moments with God. I am honored that you took a part of your day to spend it here.  May God bless you.  I pray you will be content in the role He has given you to serve today.