It’s good sometimes to take inventory of our blessings lest we forget all we have. I’m sure that many of us do this in our effort to practice gratitude. I like lists, so sometimes I list out everything I can think of to be thankful for. I made a short list this morning—
The cross
Peace with God
A lovely and faithful wife
Two daughters both serving Jesus
A nice little house close to the ocean
A growing understanding of the Word
A wonderful church community
Supportive and caring family
Abundance of friends
Good health
Tacos
That’s not a typo, I really am grateful for tacos, and they remind me of the goodness of God. There are really hundreds of things that could be listed, and I’m sure you could do the same. Sometimes though, even when we craft a long list of blessings, we still don’t feel content. It’s strange, right? What’s going on with that?
I do want to acknowledge here that, with some people, it can be clinical depression. They aren’t ungrateful and they can actually tell you a hundred things they are grateful for. They just feel really blue because of a chemical imbalance in the brain. This is a great struggle for many people and I’m not talking about that.
Result of the fall
Even people perfectly chemically balanced—if there is such a thing—still struggle feeling content despite reminding themselves of all the ways they are blessed. When sin entered the world along with it came a chronic spiritual illness we call discontentment. This is essentially promised by God as a result of sin:
And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, 'If only it were evening!' and at evening you shall say, 'If only it were morning!' because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the sights that your eyes shall see. — Deuteronomy 28:65-67
That’s a vivid description of discontentment, and I really hope it doesn’t resonate with any of you! But even with those who follow Jesus faithfully, there can still be a measure of gnawing discontentment. It’s not remedied simply by remembering all of our blessings. The capacity for satisfaction, as if it were a piece of internal machinery, seems to be constantly breaking down. There’s a deficiency to it. It reminds me of certain cars I’ve owned that I kept repairing but, then, they would break down again. This faulty capacity to appreciate everything we have is part of the human condition. Christians are not exempt from the problem.
Strain on prayer
And it is a problem, especially in our pursuit of God. Discontentment creates a restlessness that strains prayer. We can’t relax. There’s a constant gnawing inside for something more, something different, something better. It causes our prayers to be unfocused, short and anxious.
It’s hard to have a meaningful conversation with someone who is discontent. They can’t sit still and listen meaningfully. They are somewhere else. I was like that in school as a kid. When the teacher was teaching I was either daydreaming or thinking about what I would do after school. I was more focused on the clock than on the teacher. Then suddenly I’d be awakened from wherever I was in my mind to a loud voice saying, “Scott! Tell us what you think the author meant when he said that.” I had no idea what to say because I wasn’t listening. Our relationship with God can be like that. Each day we are in the school of Jesus but because our minds are somewhere else we can’t hear a thing He’s saying.
A mindset
Contentment is a quality that enables us to be quiet and restful. It enables us to pray unrushed and to read thoughtfully. It enables us to be fully present listeners when people are talking with us. It enables us to listen to a sermon and absorb it into the heart. It changes the way we walk through the woods. Or what we see in the sky.
Contentment has nothing to do with finally getting everything we want or need. If that were the case then no one could find contentment in this life. Apostle Paul said he was content with just food and clothing. So it’s a mindset that can be satisfied with little. Or we could say, happy with little.
I need that carrot!
It’s a sad pathetic world we live in where so many in their quest for happiness strive to acquire more things. Humans have an insatiable appetite to feel happy, which drives them to lust, covet and crave what they don’t have. What they feel they need to be happier is just out of reach. Like the carrot tied to a stick attached to the rabbit’s head in front of him, he can spend his best energies, but he’ll never catch the carrot. Again, Christians are not exempt from this problem.
Contentment doesn’t at all mean that we have obtained the fullest measure of satisfaction possible. That full satisfaction won’t be enjoyed till the next life when we see His face and swim in the joy of the new city. Contentment is to relax with the present state of things. We suffer. We feel sorrow. We still groan eagerly waiting for redemption (Rom 8) but we know that the Lord is working out His plans. Contentment enables us to be patient in the waiting.
This quality of contentment is vital in developing a deep life of prayer. Many times when praying we are far from feeling any great blessing upon us, but we are okay with it, because we know the Lord knows what He’s doing. We trust Him. We rest in His care. Paul the Apostle wrote—
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. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. — Philippians 4:11-13
Results of contentment
We all want this I’m sure. Some of us are completely exhausted with the discontentment eating away within. Contentment does not change our circumstances but changes our entire perception. Reading a book, writing a letter, standing in line, shopping for groceries, driving in the car, folding laundry, sitting in traffic, and a million other things—pleasant, unpleasant or mundane—are all like little church services that we meet God in when we are content. Of course, our time of prayer is completely transformed when we are content. Instead of looking more at the clock than our Teacher, we get caught up gazing at His beauty and lose track of time.
One of the most significant results of contentment in our relationship with the Lord is that we start hearing His voice more clearly. We stop rambling on and on without listening. We begin to realize that God is near.
The spring
Contentment comes when all of our desires are placed at God’s feet and we submit ourselves supremely to one desire—to know Him. I say this because being content isn’t just about trying to relax more. What creates dissonance within, is what James in his epistle describes as, “your passions at war within you.” The spring of contentment is singleness of desire. It is our sinful and selfish desires that make us discontent. Here’s more of the passage from James:
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. — James 4:1-3
Dissonance
Do you see the problem? Desires. When we want something, and can’t seem to get it, the result is internal dissonance. And it also results in conflicts with people. Lust and anger are intricately linked.
So if we want contentment we must put to death the gnawing desires in us and learn to desire “one thing”—
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. — Psalm 27:4
Idol factory
My friends, this is something to fight for. The heart is like a factory of idols (Luther) and we naturally desire all kinds of things we should not desire. These desires need to be rounded up like cattle and slaughtered (sorry vegan friends). The most important question we can ask ourselves honestly is this:
What do I want?
If you’re a Christian you’ll probably automatically say “Jesus.” Because we know that’s what we should say. Okay, what are the top five things you want? Take a hard look at #2 through 5 and ask yourself if you really want God more than any of those things. It is this disordered love that creates discontentment—because we are not designed to be content in anything but Christ.
So friends, fight to make Christ your supreme desire above all else. Ask God to crucify passions and desires in you that compete with the desire for God (Gal 5). David prayed, “Give me an undivided heart.” The Lord will do this work if we let Him. It starts by a quiet resolve to ask God over and over to give us a heart that seeks Him first above all else. He is faithful. He will do it.