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The Blessing of Contentment

No matter how many good things happen in our lives, or how many of our wishes come true, or how many of our desires are fulfilled, the world around us is always pushing us to be discontent and anxious for more. It tells us to worry and be fearful, either about getting what we don’t have or keeping what we do have. No one is immune to worry and discontent, and no one escapes anxiety.

It’s wonderful therefore to know that Jesus himself addressed this very problem of anxiety and fear in his Sermon on the Mount. And what he said is that his intention for us—as his redeemed and now-favored children—is exactly the opposite. It’s that our lives as Christians should be filled with a deep sense of peaceful contentment, not with anxiety and worry. 

There’s a profound irony when it comes to the way most people think about the favor of God: if you think God’s favor is mostly about getting material gifts in this earthly age, then that misunderstanding will stir up a cyclone of anxiety in your life. That’s because you’ll not only think those material blessings really are God’s will for you, but you’ll also convince yourself that the reason you don’t have them is because you’re doing something wrong—not having the right attitude, or not having enough faith, or not asking earnestly enough, or whatever. It’s a double whammy: you don’t get what you want, and God is disappointed in you to boot.

But once you understand that the favor of God is really about the friendship and delight of God, that you’ve forfeited those things entirely by your sin, and that only through faith in Jesus the Well-Pleasing One can you get them…well, then your life becomes stabilized by the ballast of eternity. Your eyes are set on heaven, you know beyond all doubt that God is working all things together for your good, and therefore you can live through the ups and downs of this life—the gifts granted and the gifts withheld—with a deep-running sense of peaceful contentment. 

Contentment is one of the greatest blessings imaginable of living your life under God’s favor in Jesus.

What shifts do you need in your value system or your focus if you’re going to become more content and less anxious?