WEEK 7 ● Day 1
READ PHILIPPIANS 4:10-12
The past few years, my friends have teased me that my life is intentionally contained to a five-mile radius. Kids’ schools, church, gym, after-school and weekend activities—everything in a nice, neat little bubble where I didn’t commute much and hardly ever dealt with traffic. That was then. This year, because our kids are older and things are now spread out, my sweet little bubble has been ripped to shreds. I spend at least three hours in the car each day and have told our kids I’m saving up for a helicopter.
Now, not all of this being-stuck-in-the-car stuff is bad. I get to have great conversations with my sweet kids because they have no one to talk to but me (thanks to our great rule of no phones out in the car). I also get to listen to Audible and many (many!) podcasts.
Each of these seasons—the life-in-a-radius and life-in-the-car—have their great parts and their hard parts. And I’ve had to learn what it is to rest in God in the midst of the ups and downs of both. Paul talks about this kind of thing (times a thousand, if you think about his ups and downs) in today’s verses:
11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.
The word content (autarkēs; αὐτάρκης, pronounced aw-tar-kays) means self-sufficient. Wait, what? Self-sufficient? I thought we’re supposed to be God-sufficient. Are you confused here too? This is the only time in the entire Bible this word is used. Go ahead and jump to the BLB so we can dig into this one together.
1. Go to the Interlinear for Philippians 4:11 and pen down what you learn about the word content:
If we scroll through the definitions and the lexicons, we’ll see stuff like “contented with one’s lot, with one’s means” . . . but how does that tie into the idea of being “sufficient for one’s self, strong enough or possessing enough to need no aid or support”?[1]
2. What do you think Paul means by using this word here?
Honestly, I’ve spent a couple of hours researching this. You should see all the books I have open on my desk and the Google tabs open on my laptop! I’m just not receiving a clear answer. But as I’ve been praying and talking to the Lord about what He wants me to take away from this word, this is what He’s pointing me toward:
Paul’s contentment and self-sufficiency aren’t focused on self but rather on not needing anything he doesn’t already have. He is “strong enough or possessing enough to need no aid or support” because he already has all he needs in Christ!
When we have all we need in Christ, we aren’t looking for more. I’m reminded by something John Piper wrote in his book Future Grace:
It’s obvious then that covetousness is exactly the opposite of faith. It’s the loss of contentment in Christ so that we start to crave other things to satisfy the longings of our hearts. And there’s no mistaking that the battle against covetousness is a battle against unbelief.[2]
Contentment is void of covetousness because covetousness leads us to look for more outside of Jesus.
Covetousness sounds like such a greedy word, but so often there’s real pain and longing behind it. Many times, we find ourselves struggling in a season we don’t want to be in. Maybe our friends, family members, coworkers, or even people we follow online are receiving what we’ve been praying for and are living the life we want (marriage, babies, beautiful homes, successful businesses). During these seasons, contentment is hard and covetousness creeps in. How can we cling to Christ when our ache feels overwhelming?
3. Where do you ache? Where does Jesus not feel like enough?
On my dear friend Mary Marantz’s podcast, her friend Natalie shared about her way through this.[3] Natalie is a solopreneur and has coined a beautiful concept called #communityovercompetition. But as she struggled with a brain tumor, infertility, and her life looking different from how she expected it to, she realized that if she genuinely believed in that concept, she needed to believe it in all aspects of her life, not just in her career. God has created us so that serotonin and dopamine are released into our brains as we concentrate on what we’re thankful for, causing joy and hope and growth—and in her seasons of pain, Natalie wanted to overflow with gratefulness.
With incredible intentionality, every time Natalie received a baby-shower invitation in the mail or heard of yet another friend entering a season she longed for, she allowed herself to feel the pain. But instead of falling to the ground weeping or becoming bitter, she would praise the Lord for her friend and her friend’s child, allowing a heart of thankfulness to grow. On a daily basis, Natalie shifted her mind away from her pain, away from what she didn’t have, and instead turned toward the many blessings she had already received. She realized that contentment meant trusting God with her life because there is no such thing as scarcity in the Kingdom of God.
Scarcity says, I must be better than her. Abundance says, there is enough room for both of us to shine.[4]
NATALIE FRANKE
When someone else gets that thing we’ve been praying for, it feels like we can’t breathe. Not because we don’t want what’s best for them—we truly do. But sometimes we forget that in God’s economy, we both can win. He is going to use us in different but redemptive and life-giving ways.
4. Do you think contentment and abundance go hand in hand? Why or why not?
Contentment means seeing abundance when our eyes are turned upward. Paul wasn’t in a place of earthly abundance while chained to a guard. And yet we see incredible abundance of joy and gratitude through his entire letter to the Philippians. In Philippians 4:11, we are reminded that circumstances didn’t affect Paul’s love of God or gratitude for life. He lived from a place of thankfulness no matter the season or circumstance.
5. How does what we learned about Philippians 4:7-9 last week tie into this contentment we’re learning about today?
To genuinely achieve what Paul is asking of us here in verses 10-12, we must allow God to shift our perspective to His bigger plan that will bring glory to His Kingdom and to His story through us. There is purpose behind every one of God’s no or wait answers. If we dwell on and practice all the things we read about in Philippians 4:8 and come to Him with prayers full of thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6), then His beautiful, unexplainable peace will be with us—and we will be content.
Talk with the Lord about where you have been living with a mentality of scarcity. Ask Him to help you rest in what He has given you so you can cheer on others in what He has given them.
Amen.