Paul's Big Secret

I think it's safe to say that discontent is one of the biggest struggle in the christian life. I have the hardest time with being content, and I write this as someone who is still struggling big time, not as someone whose passed it. Recently my discontent has hit me hard, i've seen anger turn to bitterness and I've seen it negatively affect those around me. What am I doing wrong? What was the "secret" that Paul had learned? How was he content "in plenty AND IN NEED". How are we to "get this secret," in times when we are angry with God and hating where we are at in life (singleness, sucky job, ect.) What God has been reminding be recently is that this secret is not as mystifying as I or Paul makes it out to be.

In my times of anger my mindset is usually I deserve better, at the core of our discontent is the conviction that we are not getting what we deserve. But the gospel answers this by saying "no you're not getting what you deserve and you can thank God for that!". You see this is the "secret" Paul talks about in phillipians, the gospel!! It wasn't searching for some new truth or practice it was the old message the one that is most crucial. When we see that our sins deserve the wrath and damnation of a holy and just God and that same God poured all that on his own beloved son so sinners like you and me could experience grace, adoption, and so many blood-bought gifts, the feelings of discontent start to lose their hold. In Christ we have eveything we need. God has been encouraging and convicting me with this truth and my prayer is that you who are struggling with discontent would stop and behold the cross where we truly see what we deserve and how much we have been given instead. When Paul says I have "learned" the secret to being content, I think this came from constant mediation on the gospel and sitting by the cross.

"I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." (phlippians 4:12)


"if you don't have what you desire, you have more than what you deserve". Thomas Watson