Keys To Contentment

When Linda and I were young parents we used to get up in the middle of the night and feed the kids when they cried for a bottle. As time wore on, there came a time that the only way they would be able to sleep through the night is if we let them scream. Oh how painful that was. You want to go in and fulfill their demands, but you know that the only way to get them past this stage is to let them scream. Eventually the screams became less frequent, and before too long they were able to make it peacefully through the night. But not without that painful process.

This is what David went through in order to find contentment of soul. He had to deny his passions, to let his need to be pampered, to have his way, to react in anger, whatever the case may have been, he had to let those cries from his flesh go unanswered. One day he mastered his passions rather than being mastered by them.

We must go through this same process. Paul calls it, "by the Spirit putting to death the deeds of the flesh". We must by the Spirit of God allow our sinful selfish passions go unanswered until one day by the Spirit we master them and find this peace. The more we attend to our sinful desires, the stronger they will cry out, and the more we will be controlled by them.

Lord, fill us with your Spirit of Self control that we may find this contentment that David found, that Paul found.

So how do we find contentment in life? We find it through a humble servants attitude, through simplicity of mind, and through self control. It sounds easy, but it is not. It is a process. Paul called it a process of learning. He said, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am in therewith to be content." It was a process of learning. Are you willing to let God begin this process in you?