11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 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.[1]
A new week
brings me to a another section of God’s book, and immediately some very
challenging and encouraging lessons from my heavenly Father.
In this
section, Paul speaks to his brothers in Christ about the issue of contentment.
He was writing from prison because of his preaching about Jesus Christ. He knew
that these fellow believers were concerned for him, and so he takes great care
to assure them of his well-being.
As Paul
brings his encouraging letter to a conclusion, he wants his brothers to know that
there is a “secret” to being content.
He has just told them, “What you have
learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the
God of peace will be with you,”[2]so
his secret of contentment is clearly not his alone, but one he wants them to
practice as well.
What
encouraged me this morning was that what Paul knew about being content “in any and every circumstance,” was
something he had learned. He knew how to be content because he had learned the
secret.
The reason I
see so much encouragement in this is that it both tells us there is a way we
can know contentment in every circumstance today, and it tells us there is a
journey of learning that will get us there. The fact of such a destination
encourages us with the hope of what we can experience in Christ, and the fact
that it is a learning process encourages us that God will lead us there as a Father
guiding his little children.
I believe
this is of huge significance because of the common tendency to read the encouragements
of Scripture as though God expects immediate capability. However, when we
receive Paul’s example through the gospel of God’s grace, and understand that
God is working into us the very things he wants us to know and experience,[3] we
can look at Paul’s example as an extremely hopeful experience of our own.
If God is
working into us both to have the will to know this secret of contentment, and
to experience the work of this secret of contentment, and he assures us that
this is something that is learned, not immediately demanded, we can then look
at how to work out our salvation on a daily basis so we can apply Paul’s secret
to the circumstances we are presently facing. As we put aside anxiety about
what we are going through, and present our requests to God with prayer,
supplication, and thanksgiving,[4] we
discover how God makes us feel content in one specific circumstance. The next
thing we face, we continue to “rejoice in
the Lord always,”[5]
and let our “reasonableness be known to
everyone.”[6]
We address the sark’s temptation to anxiety once again by presenting all our
requests about our immediate circumstance to God with prayer, supplication, and
thanksgiving. As we continue to walk with him in this way, we learn how God
causes us to feel content in another circumstance. Soon we can join with Paul
and say, “I have learned the secret of
contentment in any and every circumstance.”
No matter
what we are facing today, God’s book presents these two things we can bring to
God in the form of requests. He offers us the experience of knowing the secret
of contentment, so we can request that he would bring us to know contentment in
whatever we are going through.
God also
shows us that we come to know the secret of contentment through a process of
learning, so we can request that he would show us the immediate lessons of
contentment in what we are facing at the moment, wherever we are starting from
today. We have asked him for the destination, so we also ask him for an
unhindered journey to get us there.
I praise God
for weaving together the thoughts of his word in ways that give glory to the
work of his Holy Spirit teaching us all things, and reminding us of things we
have already learned.[7] He
once again brings to mind this glorious Scripture, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are
being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For
this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”[8]
This gives me
so much hope because the daily transformation from one degree of glory to
another is a process. It is a journey. It is God’s gift of hope to all his
children that, if he says we can know the secret of contentment, and calls us
to learn this for ourselves, we can expect to learn it in a daily increase of
glory that is measured by the ability of the Holy Spirit, not the ability of
the children of God.
After all,
the secret of contentment is, “I can do
all things through him who strengthens me.”[9] If
that is the secret of contentment, it makes sense that it is also the means of
learning the secret for ourselves.
What am I
going to expect today? That God will turn the page on his textbook of
contentment and hand me a lesson bigger than I have encountered before so I can
learn something new about contentment. Yesterday’s lessons were good for
yesterday. If I am going to learn to be like Paul, or, in an even greater way,
if I am going to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ my Savior, I
certainly better expect daily lessons that call me into a new level of trust in
Jesus’ strength. That means that I will see things that feel even more
impossible than the last lesson, but will teach me an even greater experience
of contentment than I have known.
My heavenly
Father says I can know contentment in every situation, and the Holy Spirit is
at work to teach me these things. They are working this into me, to both will
and to work for their good pleasure. I accept the calling to work this out with
fear and trembling from wherever I really am starting from today, in whatever I
am facing, because I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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