Contentment: 10 Bible Verses to Fight DiscontentSample

In addition to yesterday’s lesson, I’m starting to suspect there’s a practical element to what Paul was saying when he said “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity” in Phil 4:12.

Could it be that Paul is also referring to the resourcefulness required when times are tight? On a practical level, managing money is a lot different when you have a lot of it from when you have a little. 

For example, if a billionaire like Warren Buffett spent two hours of his work-day cutting grocery coupons to save $10 at the grocery store, it would be a pretty foolish use of his time. He could probably use those same two hours to do what he does so well and make many thousands of dollars. On the other hand, if you’re only making $100 a week, it might be worth spending those two hours cutting coupons to save $10.

My wife and I both had the painful experience of living well (and spending more money than we had) and then having to be honest with ourselves and lower our standard of living to what it really was. It isn’t fun at all, but trying to live as if you’re “in prosperity” when you’re in a season of “humble means” is a path toward destruction.

What I have been getting out of Philippians 4:12 is that if I continue to try to live as if I’m rich, when I’m not, then I’m only deceiving myself. For me, moving from having abundance back down to humble means was a test from God. 

I think he wanted to see whether I would still love Him if I didn’t have a lot of stuff. So I had to make many cuts to my lifestyle. I had to go without things I had previously taken for granted. And I had to start praying and trusting God for things that were previously commonplace.

As I said, it was a painful process. But all along I knew it was just a season and that God had more for me. As a result of those lessons we went from debt-ridden over-spenders to consistently spending less than we earn, with no consumer debt, and, by God’s grace, even paid off our mortgage by age 31. 

But, as amazing as our financial transformation was, I don’t believe it would have been possible had we not taken honest and practical steps to adjust our spending when we found ourselves in humble financial times.