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In this episode, Nancy Wilson talks about discontentment in your present situation, contrasting how discontent wants the circumstances changed now with contentment as a deep satisfaction with the will of God.
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Join Nancy Wilson each week as she discusses basic christian living habits and practices.
Welcome to The Feminine Podcast. This is Nancy Wilson. Thanks for joining me today. The topic today is intractable discontentment in your present situation and how to find your way out of it. First, what is contentment? It is a deep satisfaction with the will of God, not just a surface nod and smile, but a deep pleasure in our souls because we know God is at work in this present trouble. Contentment looks to see God glorified in the challenging circumstances. Discontent, once the circumstances changed now, discontent is about me. Contentment is about Christ. Contentment is patient. Discontent is impatient and demanding, accusative and unforgiving. Discontent does not take responsibility. Contentment looks for her duties. Discontent is not like a flu bug that infects you without your consent. Rather, it is a heart attitude that we greet with a welcome mat. Come in, get comfortable, feel free to settle in and stay as long as you want. And then we feed it. We feast our discontent on those situations or sins or shortcomings that reinforce our point of view. And soon our pet discontent grows fat and takes up more and more room. It brings all its friends. And it grows more stubborn and harder to dislodge the longer we provide a home for it. So here's a question for you. What discontents are you subsidizing and providing room and board? What are you feeding these demanding guests and how often? Have you noticed how bossy these discontents have become? Demanding your attention and infecting your remaining peace with more and more resentments? Sometimes we are discontent over everyday things like unpleasant weather or the traffic or the load of work we must do and the lack of desire we have to do it. Other times we just become discontented people. Always seeing the dark side, imagining the worst, complaining over every annoyance and trouble, and not seeing the good for fear of the possible negative outcomes. In fact, discontent can even hope for the worst outcome so it can justify itself. Sometimes we can be discontent over what might happen or what might not happen. Years of discontent can harden you in your troubles into an intractable situation. You can't budge and you won't budge. Those two words can't and won't become synonymous because you don't want to take responsibility for your situation. Bitterness and discontent know no bounds and can continue to grow on a daily basis for years and years. There will always be daily provocations. The things people do or say that you don't like and the things they don't do and don't say that you would like. This is when discontent turns you into one of those hoarders who can't get out of her house because of all the junk she has acquired and which is stacked up in piles throughout the house and out onto the porch. This happens when you've grown hardened to your discontent and have just accepted it as a way things are. You may have just given up trying to change and have gradually accommodated this deep discontent that is now firmly rooted deep in your heart. You may have renamed this discontent and simply call it adjusting to the hard circumstances. You may have given up trying to fix your discontent because you don't remember what it was like to live in contentment. You've grown comfortable with this unruly, unforgiving, ungrateful guest of discontent taking up all the space in your life and home. Others may begin to notice and may even try to help you, but pride can hold you hostage in this terrible situation. You think of all you would lose if you submitted to a soul cleansing. And after all you think, you're more comfortable with this state of affairs. You don't mind it at all. But the truth is you are too scared at what might happen or you to begin dealing with all your accumulated discontents and grievances. But there is a way out of this now while you have the chance, but it will require humility and repentance. First Timothy 6.6 says, Now, Godliness with contentment is great gain. If Godliness with contentment is great gain, then you may tell yourself, I don't need great gain. I'm content with all my discontent and giving it up would be too great of a loss. I know it makes no sense. Sin is a deceiver. If Godliness with contentment is great gain, can Godliness coexist with discontent? I don't think so. How is contentment great gain? Contentment is turning a prophet on a hard situation by submitting to God in it and leaning on him through it. If we know he loves us and we do, and if we know he orders all things for our good and he does, then we can, by use good grace, be content in every circumstance. Philippians 4.11 and 12 says, Not that I speak in regard to need. For I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be a based and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Contentment is a class we are enrolled in and we must be paying attention if we want to learn it. Paul had practiced being hungry and needy, as well as being full and abounding. In both these circumstances, he learned how to be content. What kind of practice is God giving you? Are you full or hungry? Abounding or suffering need? Contentment is for all the categories in all the places, in all your relationships and in everything else. You may have felt like giving up on contentment because you think it's too late. The situation is too far out of control and you've missed out on all the gain that was coming to you all those years if you had only chosen to be content. Often the toughest situations, the ones that seem intractable, unchangeable, cause a believer to give up trying to be content. But those are the situations where contentment is most potent and most needed. But you might say, how can I get contentment when my marriage is a long standing problem? Some Christians might still struggle with contentment even after the divorce. In fact, often there's even more discontent after the divorce. You just take the discontent with you no matter the circumstances. And this just shows us that discontent is never fixed by circumstances. It is always a matter of the heart. I urge you to face up to your discontent. No situation will be made worse by repenting of your discontent. Discontent is not about the other person's sins. Discontent is only about your own. I hope this is an encouragement to you. Thanks for listening.