Embracing Contentment in All Circumstances
If you’ve been in Southern gift shops or Christian bookstores, you’ll often see some of the same Bible verses listed on signs, mugs and t-shirts. One of them is Philippians 4:13, which simply says, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” And while it is a great verse, it is one that usually lacks the context of which it is written. The few verses before it say the following:
“for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
The last part of that verse was something I read as a kid in church and never completely understood. I thought it had more to do with divine superpowers, that if you really trusted in God he could let you fly or push a mountain over. But like many things, it all becomes clear when you view it in the right way.
What the apostle Paul is communicating is not that he can do all things as an ability, but that he can do all things as he bears life's challenges. The Spirit of God enabled him with strength to weather every storm with resilience. His contentment is rooted in this Spirit, the very Spirit that can endure all suffering…and the same goes for us.
Our hardships in life are exactly that – hard – but we can always be encouraged that God sometimes uses the darkest days for the brightest glories. We can be content, knowing that no matter what, we’ll reach the other side. For as the apostle Peter also says:
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
*References from Philippians 4:11-13 and 1 Peter 1:6-7
