Gratitude and Contentment

We are members of a race that isn’t always described as being especially content or grateful.  Many are caught up in the game of achievement and status while others seem to enjoy spending their time in jealous admiration of the first group.  “It must be nice to have ______…”  “If I had _______, life would be a cake walk.” And so on.  And we can fill in the blank with whatever IT is: time, energy, skills, connections, relationships, money, opportunities, looks, luck, etc…  The challenge facing each group is that there is often an ethereal and abstract notion that somewhere out there…. sometime in the future, I’ll finally be happy.  Indeed it seems that this is one of the most successful ploys of the accuser, the deceiver.  For as long as we are focused on somewhere and sometime other than here and now, he can keep us spinning our wheels and running in circles.  Sadly, his focus is not on how to make us happy in achieving our ambitions and greed, but rather on how to keep us unhappy and miserable, and preferably to spread that misery to others.

However, the Christ-follower has a different set of instructions.  We are to take every thought captive (2 Cor. 10:5), and to “show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe” (Heb. 12:28).  This means we are to recognize and acknowledge the schemes of the devil for what they are and then to refuse to play into them.  Consider the familiar story of the Fall in the Garden of Eden.  The serpent in all its craftiness succeeded in coaxing Adam and Eve to feel greed, envy, a longing and dissatisfaction.  Rather than expressing gratitude for their free access to the vast garden, they immediately conspired to grasp at straws for an intangible and abstract “better”.  All the while, they were giving up the best to do so.  How different would their story, and ours, have been if they would have instead given thanks to God for every spiritual blessing (Eph. 3:3)?  

It strikes me that gratitude is the key to contentment.  Contentment is a state of soul (as opposed to a state of mind) we experience once we have tallied up the score and realized that God really has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, and we have then taken the time to express gratitude for these blessings.  It also extends beyond the spiritual and metaphysical and into our physical, tangible blessings.  Are you grateful that you have a place to live?  A means of transportation?  Access to doctors and health care?  What about access to information and the ability to learn?  This is one of the reasons I love the American holiday of Thanksgiving so much.  It is a time that we are encouraged to express gratitude for the things and people in our lives that mean so much.  But to the follower of Christ, we have the Holy Spirit-given ability to live in this gratitude-fueled contentment all the time.  Paul gives an encouraging testimony in Philippians 4:11-12.  

“I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”

The gift of contentment is not an ephemeral implausibility reserved for isolated monks and “super Christians,” but rather the dwelling place of every thankful heart.  I love the description of peace offerings of thanksgiving as outlined in Leviticus 7:11-14.  The picture we’re given is that the more thankful a person is, the greater their offering of thanksgiving should be.  A thankful person doesn’t show their thanks by giving as little as possible.  Think of Zaccheus, who was so overcome by joy and gratitude at meeting the Messiah that he immediately gave away half of everything he owned in celebration.  While we may each respond in different ways – offering words of gratitude, lending a helping hand, or simply resting contentedly in God’s presence, may we each make the deliberate decision TO respond to God for all He has done, is doing and will do, in us, through us, around us, and even in spite of us.