“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:11b–13 NIV)
Contentment isn’t passive satisfaction. It is the grateful, faithful, and fruitful use of whatever God has placed in our hands -- little or much. It is lifting the cup Providence gives us and calling on the name of the Lord. The contents of the cup are God’s provision; drawing deeply from it is the practice and art of contentment.
To refuse the cup because it is only half full, because its flavor is unfamiliar, or because someone else’s cup seems finer is to miss the goodness within -- and that loss is the quiet penalty of discontent. No one lives discontented who fully employs and fully enjoys what God has already given.
It may sound lofty to say we can have what we desire if we learn to desire what we have -- but this much is true: contentment is receiving the most and best from life by making the most and best of what God has entrusted to us in Christ.
-- Updated and adapted from Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901)
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