Ten Steps to Your Best Life by Brent Crowe Sample

DAY 7 - Contentment: Live and Learn; Learn and Live

Think about Paul’s words to the Philippians, considering all the “circumstances” he had endured. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, he explains, in part, the persecution that he had experienced: 

Far worse beatings, many times near death. Five times I received forty lashes minus one from Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and lacking clothing. 

Additionally, he was no stranger to the loneliness accompanying imprisonment, having spent between five and six years incarcerated. Despite pain, persecution, abandonment, and aloneness, somehow, he “learned to be content.” 

It is no secret that we live in a culture that seeks satisfaction through pleasure, possessions, and power. There is an allure—a gravitational pull—toward that which can never bring peace and contentment to the soul. It’s as if pleasure, possessions, and power are meals we eat yet are never full. The more we consume, the more we want. So how did Paul arrive at a place of such contentment no matter the circumstances? 

Well, first, he had arrived at a place in the journey that only comes from living a little while. He had journeyed to the condition of freely submitting and delighting in the good Father through thick and thin. On the days when the sea breeze was a refreshing reminder of God’s grace while pushing out of a port and the years of incarceration in unimaginable and grotesque conditions, his contentment only deepened. 

Secondly, his life echoes down through the ages that contentment isn’t just about being satisfied with your situations and stuff; rather, it is all about being satisfied with Jesus in all your circumstances. Paul was a living witness that contentment will be learned if you continually find your joy in the right place. The challenge for us living in a download-stream-everything-at-the-speed-of-now world is to understand that the more experience we have with God, the more comfortable we become trusting God. Contentment is living and trusting more and more in what we are learning about being a child of God. 

What now?  

• Ask and answer some raw and honest questions:
      
  • Are you trying to find satisfaction in sources that were never intended to satisfy?  
  • What is the cause(s) of discontentment in your life?  
  • Are you cultivating a lifestyle of learning contentment by consistently finding your joy in Jesus?   

We hope this plan encouraged you. Learn more at tenstepstoyourbestlife.com.