PURPOSE TO LIVE CONTENT IN THE LORD by steve johnson
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ere are 10 things that create discontent. Do you relate to any of them? 1. Advertising We’re constantly bombarded with messages designed to create discontent with who we are or what we have. The advertising industry is built on this and most media is built on advertising. 2. Entitlement We are constantly told “Get what you deserve.” Discontent arises because “I’m not getting what I deserve.” 3. FOMO Fear of missing out. 4. Jealousy, envy, and covetousness “My neighbour has a better, bigger, newer ______ than I do!” 5. Greed “A little more is never enough.” 6. Temporal values Valuing material and temporal things above spiritual things. 7. Negativity Your glass is always half empty.
8. Projection Projecting to when I finally get ______ (for example, a house, retire, enough money). 9. Perfectionism Nothing is ever quite good enough. 10. Misguided thinking Focusing on the circumstances and blaming our circumstances for our discontent. Paul was human just like us, yet he wrote that he learned the secret of being content. “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:11–13 NIV) When he wrote that he was confined and under Roman guard. Yet how could he say, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances”? He says he “learned the secret
