The Power Of Christian ContentmentSýnishorn

The Definition of Christian Contentment

Let’s start with this simple truth: God commands every Christian to be content. Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Because contentment is commanded, we are obligated to do it. A convicting question stands over all our moments of complaining discontent: Has Christ, crucified and resurrected on your behalf, done enough to make you content today . . . or must he do a little more? 

Puritan pastor and writer Jeremiah Burroughs’s timeless definition provides a significant contribution to our modern understanding: “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.” Here we are introduced to the dense idea that Christian contentment is a genuine heart state which is what makes it such a rare jewel, and why it will take the rest of our lives to perfect it. 

Every Christian faces a massive and daily internal battle between the indwelling Spirit and indwelling sin, and winning this battle is essential to Christian contentment. Christian contentment is a supernatural state that can only be achieved by sovereign grace working in cooperation with the human heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

We must keep in mind that our daily submission to God is our partnering with the Holy Spirit in order for our contentment to take root. Submission involves gladly recognizing God’s fatherly authority to make these kinds of decisions concerning our lives. It means to yield, to place ourselves under, to bow down to our majestic God. Most of our restless discontent is, in fact, rebellion. 

Apart from the ongoing work of abiding in Christ as a branch does the vine, contentment is not achieved through our own effort. Our contentment is a work of ongoing salvation by grace through faith. It is not a natural temper or demeanor, like some mellow person who is “chill” about the things that are going on, laid-back, taking everything in stride. Neither is it attained by willpower or by turning over a new leaf or by New Year’s resolutions. In the end, Christian contentment is a miracle of sovereign grace working together with a regenerate soul. God will get the glory, and we will get the joy. 

What part of Burrough’s definition of Christian contentment gladdened your heart? What part did not?