The Elements of Contentment, Part 3

How worship and Christ help us fight for contentment

Photo by Devin Berko on Unsplash

In our last two pieces, we considered how trust, satisfaction, and submission foster contentment in our souls; in this piece, we’ll finish with the final two elements of contentment.

Worship

Like submission, worship needs defining. We most commonly use “worship” to mean something like …

1. Celebrating or praising God, usually by singing in a church service,

2. As a result of having celebratory feelings about God,

3. Because I’ve had positive experiences of him.

In other words, I have positive experiences of or about God, and those experiences create feelings of celebration that I express by attending a church service and singing.

But the biblical portrait of worship is bigger than that. Look at what the apostle Paul commands the Romans:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship. (Romans 12:1)

“Your bodies” is shorthand for “all of you;” and “a living sacrifice” means “a perpetual offering to God” (as someone has said, the thing about a living sacrifice is that it can keep crawling off the altar). And instead of mainly being about expressing my feelings to God, worship is about being holy and acceptable to God – seeking his approval rather than expressing mine. So worship is …

1. Offering my entire life to God,

2. With the goal of being holy and acceptable to him,

3. As a result of considering the mercies I’ve received from him.

This includes singing, praying, and everything else we might do in church. But worship really means offering my entire life – church, work, and home, soul and body, Sunday through Saturday – to the pleasure of God, as a response to the overwhelming mercy I’ve received through Jesus. And while I hope I have celebratory feelings that make worship feel easy, worship is driven by the mind – rational consideration of God’s mercy – and the will – seeking to please him in everything – whether my feelings come along for the ride or not. So worship might include:

• Singing and praying in a church service on Sunday

• Meditating on Scripture and praying in private on Monday morning

• Repenting to my kids for losing my temper while making breakfast on Tuesday

• Working at my job with faithfulness and integrity on Wednesday

• Helping my neighbor clean up their yard after a storm on Thursday

• Encouraging my wife after she’s had a tough week at home on Friday

• Celebrating a friend’s birthday without getting drunk or being a boor on Saturday

These are the kinds of things that “present[ing] your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” encompasses.

They also cultivate contentment.

They do so, first, by recalibrating our hearts to God’s mercy. Discontent tempts us to “curve in on ourselves,” to use a phrase from Augustine, and obsess over our wants or problems. Worship reorients us to God and his will. It reminds us who he is, what he’s done for us, and what he’s made us to do. For a people literally created, defined, and sustained by God’s grace, that will lead us to remembering that our mercies outweigh our burdens by a thousandfold. Discontent involves the sneaking thought, “I deserve [this thing I don’t have].” But if I deserve to be in hell, eternally separated from God’s goodness, then I’m swimming in mercies. Worship helps me remember that, which leads to gratitude instead of discontent.

Worship also helps me live with purpose, which fosters contentment. Part of discontent is the idea that I should be living some kind of different life. It sets up what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls a “wish dream,” and what we might call a fantasy, and says, “that is the life I should be living.” That’s the man I should be. That’s the job I should have. That’s what my bank account should hold. And it tempts us to reorient our lives around that fantasy, usually to the neglect of the actual life God has given us.

Living our God-given purpose – “obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure” – leads to doing actual good in the actual life we’ve been given, which leads to contentment.

Our relationship with Christ

This ties the other elements of the graphic together, because ultimately our living relationship with Jesus is what lets us find contentment through the other elements. Anyone can cultivate satisfaction, submit themselves to Fate, trust in a vague Providence, and even worship, and can probably grow in contentment through them; but the apostle Paul tells us where the ultimate power of contentment lies:

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 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. I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)

How does Jesus help us fight for contentment?

First, we learn contentment by following the pattern of his life. Rather than scrabbling for glory or gain on this side of eternity, Jesus lived in simplicity, service, and sacrifice, with his eyes on the joys of the new creation. Like the author of Hebrews says, “for the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:2).

Jesus commanded his followers to live the same pattern (see Luke 9:23-25). But a side benefit of doing so is that it helps us grow in contentment. If Jesus did without many earthly comforts, we can do without them too. If we stand to inherit the entire new creation, we don’t need wealth here. If it’s more blessed to give than to receive, we can give and be satisfied with what we have left. Following Jesus’ pattern while meditating on eternity will, as a byproduct, make us more content here.

Second, we learn contentment by steeping ourselves in his presence. After Jesus died, rose from the dead, and ascended back to heaven, God the Holy Spirit descended and brought his presence into the souls of his people. Christians have a soul-to-soul communion with Christ. Through prayer, the Word, worship, and the other spiritual disciplines, Jesus meets us, strengthens us, and changes us.

 Our recent season of sickness confronted us with many challenges and forced Allison to take on a lot of extra responsibility. We faced many temptations to despair or become bitter. But by God’s grace, as we spent more time praying, meditating on the Word, and worshipping, we both found ourselves feeling held close by God and strengthened by his presence. Though our bodies were taxed, our souls were filled in ways we struggle to put into words. Now that we’re coming out of it, we remember that time as one of suffering, but also one of experiencing God’s goodness: we have at least as much gratitude as sorrow. That comes from being sustained by the presence of Christ.