Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11
I remember watching a news strip of the late actor George Burns, who had appeared at a function where he was to make a short speech. As he approached the microphone, Burns made the observation, ‘It’s nice to be here. Actually, it’s nice to be anywhere when you’re 100 years old!’ He had a good point; most of us don’t reach that grand old age like George Burns did. Most of us don’t want to be 100 years old, but none of us want to avoid it, either. Just to be alive is the most important thing, after all. The apostle Paul, in today’s text, is considering how the circumstances around him were becoming less important than the simple fact that He was in God’s hands.
How content are you with your current circumstances? There is nothing wrong, of course, with working hard to improve our situation, to make things better for ourselves and those we love. But if we find that the circumstances around us deteriorate through no fault of our own, does that cause us anxiety and dismay? Speaking for myself, I would have to confess it does. But it shouldn’t. I have to remember that circumstances here are temporary, and God has a permanent plan for me that is so much greater and better. There is nothing to regret about losing out in this world when we realize that we are gaining everything in the next world.
Look at the person who has the big mansion down the road; is that person better off than you? What about the person driving the handsome new expensive car; does that person have a right to more happiness than you? Probably not! Those people most likely are not even saved. They don’t have the most precious and important thing in all the world: God’s salvation. All those folks who flow around you in a busy mall are in a struggle to get ahead, to have more things, more fun, more friends, more power, more of this world’s passing pelf. And all this time, you and I have everything that is the most important for time and for eternity. Why should we not be content?
To be content is a lesson that Paul learned. It is a lesson that we do well to study every day; it will make us sweeter saints. -Jim MacIntosh