LEARNING CONTENTMENT

When my husband and I got married, we didn’t have two nickels to rub together. We were as poor as church mice! As time went on, our economical status increased. My grandmother on my father’s side was very wise and would throw out these little truth bombs that made me think long and hard. One time, however, her silence spoke volumes to my heart long after she was gone.

One Christmas we had gathered at my sister’s home for our extended family holiday celebration. Grandma walked over to me and admired my watch. In my most humble voice, I said, “Thank you, Grandma. I’ve learned to be content. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity.” Ugh! Gag me with a spoon!!! Grandma’s response? Nothing! Nada! She smiled and walked away. Had I learned how to live in prosperity? Not when you look at my response to a simple, casual compliment extended toward my chosen wrist accoutrement. A fitting response from Grandma would have been, “Child, you have not learned anything!” It was not lost on me that sitting in my County Jail cell the Holy Spirit brought conviction to my heart that my first lesson, among many, was understanding true contentment.

Learn to be content in prison? When all my “people” and earthly possessions had been taken away from me? What did I have left? Paul had written to Timothy, “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” (1 Timothy 6:8) Well, Lord, I don’t even have that! Oh, wait, I do; just not the food and covering I want. Okay. I need eyes to see things from Your perspective.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7) This life is filled with anxiety and circumstances that cause us to want to fret. Fretting is not trusting. Fretting comes from hearts of pride that refuse to trust what we cannot control. As Christians, we love to quote the second half of this verse: …casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. I have heard many people over the years say that we cast our anxiety on Him, then we tend to take it back soon thereafter. That statement seems a bit mystical to me. The truth is: If we don’t understand the first part of this verse, we can never use the second part as it was intended. The recipients of Peter’s epistle were suffering persecution. Peter was not promising them that their earthly suffering was going to end happily ever after! When he tells them to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, he was telling them that they must accept their present circumstances as coming from His hand. They must trust the God who is in control of all things. God’s providential hand will always be for the good of His children and His glory. Whatever was happening to them (and to us) at any given time, is part of His will. It was ordained before the foundation of the world. If you can’t get past that truth, you will never be able to cast all your anxieties on Him.

It’s pride that stands up in the flesh to proclaim, “I don’t deserve…” Pride says, “Poor me!” It’s pride that wants me to live a life of perpetual exultation. How do we humble ourselves in situations that are egregious to our flesh? By submitting to His providential hand, acknowledging our struggles to do so, asking for His help to walk in the Spirit while trusting His fatherly love and goodness. Simply stated, the one who does not know his God cannot humble himself under the mighty hand of God and can never cast his anxieties on Him.

The first book I wanted to study when I got to County Jail was the book of Philippians. I knew Paul wrote it IN PRISON—one of its themes being how to have joy. Let’s look at the verse I tortured in my response to Grandma. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. (Philippians 4:11-14) What do you think of when you read Philippians—or any of the other prison epistles—understanding the location from which Paul writes? Does it bring conviction when you’ve just complained that your car just broke down inconveniencing you in some way, or that you didn’t get to go here or there or do this or that because of unforeseen circumstances that came abruptly? That tendency to complain, grumble, or whine about your lot today is evidence of a pride problem in your heart.

Humble people are thankful people. Paul, in prison, was thankful for the gift the Philippians had sent him. He was not only thankful for their obedience to the Lord in sending the gift, his heart was filled with thankfulness knowing that it was the Lord who had blessed them with the ability to do so. What Paul understood is that whether the Philippians sent him a gift or not, he knew that God was the ultimate Provider. What a message he was sending to his beloved Philippians regarding the virtue of contentment.

Why have I continually suggested that Covid-19 is a gift to the church? Because these types of trials reveal what is in our hearts. And we need to know because God will not be mocked. To mock God is to disrespect, dishonor, or ignore Him. It is a serious offense committed by those who have no fear of God or who deny His existence. (www.gotquestions.org) Unfortunately, Christians can get so caught up in life when things are going good that they disrespect, dishonor, and ignore God causing Him to get their attention. Many people when they get out of prison say they just want to forget—they want to put it all behind them by never thinking about it again. I never want to forget. I believe remembering is a good thing. Deuteronomy 8:2-6 says: All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus, you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 

During times of prosperity, there are more people playing at Christianity than in times of trouble. Troubles weed out the wheat from the tares. Deuteronomy 8:11-20: “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.”

There’s a famous commercial that says, “What’s in your wallet?” The question Christians need to ask continually is: “What’s in my heart?” Pride is part of our human nature. The unbeliever doesn’t know how to be anything but proud. Psalm 10:3-4—For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” For the believer, it will be a lifelong battle to overcome pride. To understand the deceitfulness of our own proud hearts and pride’s ability to blind our eyes to reality ask: Looking back before God saved me, did I see myself as a proud person? I never gave it a thought, to be honest. I would have said I was one who had a very low self-esteem; that, too, is a form of pride! The root of pride is fixed on the idea that there is no God. Pride causes me to focus on me, not Him. What’s wrong with me? Why doesn’t anybody like me? Or, I am in control of my own life. I just need to follow my own heart. I can be what I want to be and do what I want to do. I’m a good person. At the end of my life I want to be able to say that I did things my way! These are lies from the pit of hell, lies that come from hearts of the created in prideful rebellion towards the Creator.