I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. ¹¹ Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 

Philippians 4:10-11 ESV

The Gift that Keeps on Giving in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we learn that the mind of Christ is of sacrificial selflessness towards His body. One of the ways we can see this best represented is in the act of giving and receiving. Paul commends the Philippians for growing in giving, not only because they were the only ones to send Paul resources to meet his needs, or because they sent people to minister to him, but because it would bear much fruit. Their generosity showed where their heart was. The Philippians knew that Paul was still spreading the gospel in prison. So, they were not only giving to the worker but also the work of God. Through his experiences, both good and bad, Paul learned to be content no matter the circumstance. He knew how to be humbled and how to have abundance. What was his secret? Christ, who strengthened him.

Both poverty and wealth present us with the temptation of leaving God behind towards self-sufficiency. While the secret route to contentment is Christ Himself—Who makes us divinely sufficient—we can have contentment because Christ, the all-sufficient One, is with us. Giving and receiving is an ever-growing cycle. When we give selflessly, we get joy, peace, and contentment. When we receive, what we get is to meet our needs and for us to share. And when we do share, we receive more, then we give and receive more to share, and so on. Participating in this cycle is credited to our account in heaven, where it yields eternal rewards that last forever. This is what it means to work out our salvation – to invest in fruit that abounds on both sides of existence.

In both trial and blessing, a grateful heart returns praise to God. When we fail to praise God for His blessings, we make fertile soil for poisonous seeds of pride in our hearts. Ideas like, “I deserve this, I earned this, and I did this,” begin to take root and overshadow God’s providential work in our lives. When we instead return God’s blessings as praise, we make fertile soil for God to do abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.

I’m Grateful

Supporting His work on this earth is a pleasing sacrifice. The generous and faithful church is promised to have all its needs supplied in abundance. Are we a church that is known for boundless giving and receiving? In partaking selflessly of that cycle, we experience the strengthening of Christ; we mature spiritually, learn how to be content, and produce never-ending thanksgiving.

I Won’t Let What I Want Rob Me Of What I Have. Contentment and gratitude aren’t identical, but they sure are family. Contentment lives somewhere near the beginning of the path toward a more grateful perspective. For instance, it’s difficult to have gratitude for something you’ve received when you’re at the same time wanting more of that very thing.

 For instance, it’s difficult to have gratitude for something you’ve received when you’re at the same time wanting more of that very thing. Think of a toddler who says thank you for sweets because they’ve discovered that’s how to get more. Are they glad to have the sweets? Yes. But, are they content with what they’ve already received? Probably not. A grateful perspective realizes God gave us the good we have, responds with praise, and then believes His good is enough. Yet, we often come to God with a toddler-like, “Thank you. More, please.”

Gratitude turns what we have into enough.