Living the Good Life—How To Be Content

Sunday morning I spoke on contentment at Shiloh. Here are some hints to help us be content (and I know I owe others who have shared with me to help me compile this list.) Remember:

1. that our worth is not measured by our things but by our God.

2. God made us in his image, and Jesus valued us so much he died for us.

3. to accept God’s invitation to live inside of us. This fuels us to join him on his mission.

4. that contentment is learned. See Phil. 4:11-12.

5. to look up to God instead of out to what other people have.

6. that contentment is not dependent on external circumstances.

7. that contentment is not linked to keeping circumstances under our control; it is linked to a God who has all circumstances under His control.

8. to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Thermometers display the “temperature” around them; thermostats regulate the atmosphere around them.

9. Philippines 4:13—“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” You CAN be content.

10. that like Jeremiah (Jer. 1:4-5), God created you for a mission.

One of the biggest robbers of contentment is envy. What do you do with envy? Here are 10 suggestions from Solomon Schimmel’s book THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS: JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, AND CLASSICAL REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN NATURE:

1. Reconsider the underlying assumptions you have about what makes a person worthy.

2. De-emphasized the value of the envied objects either for yourself or for the person who possesses them.

3. Think of the positive things you have that the envied person does not.

4. Compare yourself to those less fortunate than you rather than to those more fortunate than you.

5. Consider that the person you envy deserves object or quality which he has as his just reward and that there may be good reasons why you do not.

6. Reflect upon how irrational your envious feelings are. Envy hurts you and does not improve your situation.

7. Think about the potential danger of your envy. It could lead you to do things, which harm others or yourself.

8. Consider your envy as inconsistent with the kind of person you'd really like to be.

9. Associate your envy with negative qualities. [Here I would encourage you to think about some of the characters from literature that represented have represented envy: for example—consult the works of C. S. Lewis or Frank Perretti.]

10. Cultivate feelings and thoughts that are incompatible with envy and emotions it evokes.