As Tom Hicks outlined in a recent post here, so unusual is contentment in a fallen human being that Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs called it “a rare jewel.” Nothing exhibits Christian maturity like contentment in Christ and nothing unmasks our immaturity like discontentment, which I examined in part I of this series. Yet, contentment is elusive. The writer of Proverbs alludes to this in 27:20b, “… never satisfied are the eyes of man.”
What is contentment? Burroughs defines it this way: “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition… It is the inward submission of the heart.” Similarly, Michael Scott Horton asserts that “Being content with life means accepting the circumstances in which God’s providence has placed me.”
My own definition is brief but strikes at the heart of the sin of discontentment: contentment is the opposite of covetousness. It is the opposite of covetousness because the coveting heart says, “I deserve better than what God has given me, a better ministry position, a better job, a better spouse, better children, a better socioeconomic position… better.” Discontentment runs at cross purposes with the tenth commandment. And fallen man is a discontented lot.
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