When you compare yourself to others and what they have, you will NEVER be fully content because there is always something that others have that you don’t.  There is only one way to be content and that is to look to Christ and not other people.  When you start to understand this concept you begin to be thankful for what you have instead of covetous towards what you don’t have.

I learned this in Africa where the people have absolutely nothing.  Just enough to eat and drink and maybe a clay hut to live in.  But I tell you those people were the most content people I have ever met.  The joy that they have in the Lord, and not things of this world, really put me in check and made me question my wants vs my needs. I started to really think about this and my life.  When I find that I am not content it is because I am looking to what others have and comparing it to what I don’t have.  When I am the most content is when I set everything I have and don’t have aside and focus solely on the Lord.  Even though this is a constant battle, my life is always better when I set the temporary things of this world aside and focus on what is eternal; my maker, Jesus Christ!

Job 36:11

If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.

When you focus on the Lord by obeying and serving Him, that is when you will find true contentment and prosperity.  When you focus on yourself you will find emptiness and the struggle of not being good enough to the standards of this world.  Be content and thankful with what God has given you because you are blessed to have more than the majority of the rest of the world.

Questions:

1)  Where are you not content?  Singleness?  Job?  School?  Marriage?  Life?

2)  How can you get to be content in all things?  Good and Bad!