Consider this blog Part 2 of “The Secret of Being Confident.” It’s been awhile since I’ve written that blog, but Pirates of the Caribbean 4 came out four whole years after Pirates 3, so I think it’s still okay.
Let’s talk a little bit about what discontentment feels like.
Most people identify discontentment as unhappiness but it is so much more than that. Discontentment is unhappiness coupled with a belief that you do not have the power to change your circumstances. You feel helpless when you are discontent. You don’t know where you want to be but you know you don’t want to be where you’re at and that results in heaping amounts of frustration followed by unrest, unhappiness, and sometimes confusion or bitterness towards God.
If discontentment were an emoticon it would be clenched fists. But discontentment goes further than just being a frustrated feeling because it disables you.
Discontentment leaves you unsatisfied. Nothing is ever enough. One thing C.S. Lewis points out in his book The Screwtape Letters is that humans are not content with the present. He said that whether humans are wishing for “the good old days” or longing for a better future either way they are not enjoying the present.
This can be seen in daily situations like wishing for the weekend or bigger issues. You’re single and you just want to be married. You’re in an entry level position and you’re wondering when you’ll be the “top dog.” You don’t know what you want to do or where you want to live. Fast forward to when you’re 40 when you start thinking about where you thought you’d be by this time and you may be nowhere near there.
The reality is things can always be bigger and better. You can always make more money. You can always want what someone else has. Nowadays, we want the glamorous life we see our friends post on social media about, but we fail to realize that they go through similar struggles as us.
Discontentment makes you incapable of making wise decisions. The average person changes jobs every two years now. Two years? Most people wear braces longer than that. In life there are always choices. There are always going to be ups and downs. We are constantly going in and out of trials and seasons. I think the danger in this is that many of us believe once we get out of a season, we’ll be content. For this reason, we make decisions based on what we think will make us content immediately, rather than trusting God for His plan.
Discontentment can make you speculate everything, even God’s blessings. You live in uncertainty. We have a tendency to doubt everything in our life when we are unhappy or unsure about one thing. This can result in instability and uncertainty in every aspect of our lives. It can make us unappreciative of what God has blessed us with and constantly searching.
Discontentment happens as a result of letting our circumstances dictate our happiness. We think that once we get something we’ll be content so we hang on for that and feel as though we’re going through the motions or wasting time before we reach that point.
Discontentment turns into depression when you allow bitterness to take over. If you are discontent because someone has hurt you, you need to allow yourself to grieve, but ultimately you must let it go. There comes a point when your bitterness becomes an even bigger enemy than the person who hurt you.
Discontentment makes it impossible to love other people. When you are discontent, you are not joyful. Because of this discontentment, you will never be happy with your own life, which oftentimes makes you frustrated when other people achieve greatness or get something you want. This affects your attitude and inhibits your ability to love others, have joy, and promote peace.
So enough about discontentment. Let’s talk about how to be content.
In Philippians 4:12 Paul writes, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.”
Paul is a man who has been tortured, scorned by people he loves, put into prison numerous times, rejected by churches he’s mentored, attacked by false witnesses, stoned, lost at sea, and those are just a few life events. From this we can learn:
- Contentment is found by not letting your season dictate your happiness. It is not found in material things or circumstances. Christ does not change (Hebrews 13:8) and He is probably the only thing that won’t change in your life. If Paul had based his happiness on his circumstances, rather than Christ, he would be incredibly unhappy and possibly not even alive.
- Contentment is found by resting in God’s plan. Worry, fear, and doubt are all side-effects of thinking we are in control of our lives. Submit to God. Trust His plan and His timing.
- Contentment in found through God’s promises in His Word. I could list verse after verse of God’s promises to you. There are too many to count but ultimately He has promised to provide (Psalm 37:25, Matthew 6:25), enable us (Philippians 4:13), strengthen us (Isaiah 40:31), uplift us (Psalm 3:3), and fight for us (Exodus 14:14).
This is true contentment — recognizing that you are not in control and realizing that it’s a really good thing you’re not in control; then resting in that alone. My pastor, John Lindell, once said, “When you get to heaven, you’ll see that you could have only wished to have orchestrated your life as well as God.” Find contentment in Him to have the best life possible – the life He’s called you to live.
Future-you would tell present-you to trust God. Enjoy every moment. It’s all gonna be okay.
LVL 