The Power Of Christian ContentmentSýnishorn

Contentment in Prosperity

North American evangelicals of the twenty-first century are the wealthiest Christians in the history of the church. This amazing amount of wealth is a doorway of opportunity for Christians to alleviate physical suffering in this world and spiritual suffering in eternity. Wealth is also a powerful temptation toward the corruption of our souls.

Concerning the remedy, I want to assert that part of the problem with idolatrous materialism is that we haven’t learned the secret of being content—freely submitting to God’s wise, fatherly choices for our lives while being well fed and living in plenty. God desires Christians to learn contentment as pipelines of blessing to others while giving much wealth away. Christian contentment that doesn’t learn how to be independent of material blessings while surrounded by abundant prosperity will not be much use to those of us who live abundant lives here. 

When everything is going well, it seems at least on the surface that contentment is a given. But this is the kind of “contentment” pagans seek—that which satiates all five senses, is ingested in good company, and during pleasant times. How is this different for the Christian’s endeavor of contentment in plenty? In other words, when prosperous circumstances surround you, when you have experienced the blessings of God in everything you have put your hand to, when God has “put a hedge” around you and everything you possess (Job 1:10), the happiness you feel in your heart and display on your face will hardly appear to be supernatural to an unbeliever. 

The heavenly commandment of being content is binding as much in prosperity as it is when we are crushed by circumstances. This is evident from Paul’s statement that was the scriptural launching for our meditations on Christian contentment: “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” (Philippians 4:11–12). Paul considered properly facing times of abundance and want as part of the secret. 

Has there been a time in your life when you were in want yet content? Has there been a time in your life when you experienced abundance but were not content? Does the connection between contentment and abundance in your own life reflect Paul’s teaching?