“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. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” – Philippians
We all know the end of this verse, but we seldom see the introduction.
I, myself like to pretend the prelude is a weak option.
“To be content in whatever circumstance I am in…humble means and hunger…”
We live in America, we don’t know what humble means and hunger even look like.
We wake up, get into expensive cars, drive to fairly safe places to earn money so we can buy too much food and things to fill our big bellies and ridiculously large houses…And if we can’t do these things for whatever reason, we pray for the right to them…for the fulfillment of our entitlement to them…
If we are unhappy, unloved, or under appreciated we find distraction by any means necessary and pray for relief as soon as yesterday. We stare at screens and say ” i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. But we don’t accept that those things may never me comfortable or glorious.
I am thinking about contentment today. I am considering what it looks like over the course of a lifetime. I don’t think it means I have all the money I need, the clothes I want, or the love I feel l deserve. I think it looks like emptying myself of my reliance on these things and finding that I am helpless before a God who wants more for and from me.
Who wants me poured out in the field of service to others.
So that it can be said,
“I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith…” – 2 Timothy 4:6-7