“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:11-13).”

Note that Paul said that he had learned to be content - no matter what his external state was. His well-being did not depend on anything external! His sense of contentment came from something within him - his relationship with Jesus. That relationship provided a source of strength to him that was greater than his surroundings. Greater than his possessions. Greater than how people were treating him at the time.

After 55 years of preaching, I still find it remarkable how many people seem to have a sense of well-being only when everything around them is going well! The Apostle Paul was able to have a sense of well-being when most things around him were going poorly. Do we need to be reminded again that he wrote this while imprisoned? If you or I were to be put in prison because of the gospel, would we be able to say what Paul said?

We tend to attach our contentment and sense of well-being to having a full belly and lots of toys to entertain us. Witness the past holidays. We feasted, exchanged gifts, and enjoyed all the best things money could buy. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with those things, we cannot allow ourselves to think those things will ever produce contentment.

There is no amount of getting more that can ever satisfy the lust for more. Material things - do not, cannot, and never will - satisfy the deepest longings and needs of our hearts. It is because of that impossibility that many people experience “post-Christmas letdown.”

I recall the words of an old song by Peggy Lee. One line of it is about when she was twelve years old and her daddy took her to the circus. The line goes, “And as I sat there watching, I had the feeling that something was missing. I don’t know what, but when it was over, I said to myself, ‘Is that all there is to the circus?’” One of the thoughts of the song is that everything in life tends to let us down and that there is no real satisfaction anywhere.

The only place you will ever find true and lasting satisfaction, contentment, and a sense of well-being is in Christ. Everything else will leave you with the thought that “something is missing.” We ought not to live our lives with something missing!

Contentment comes not in things, possessions, money, or experiences. The things that matter and endure are things I cannot hold in my hand. Contentment comes through Jesus and the relationships that I share in him. That’s what Paul learned. May we do the same.