Contentment Beyond Circumstance

by Lexi Morris

“For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

Philippians 4:11

For my New Year’s resolution, I knew I didn’t want to make a long list of goals. I usually struggle to keep up the momentum and end up disappointing myself more often than not. So this year, I chose not to.

However, there were two things I truly wanted to experience: more joy and more contentment. In the past, when I prayed for contentment, it often felt more like, “Lord, get me out of this season so I can finally feel content,” rather than a prayer to be content right where I was. I convinced myself that in order to be content, my circumstances had to change. I needed those prayers answered. I needed those desires fulfilled. I let the circumstances around me dictate the level of contentment in my life. 

If we’re honest with ourselves, it’s much easier to look around at what we don’t have and become dissatisfied with what we do. Social media is overflowing with exciting milestones. Someone just got engaged, a close friend is expecting a baby, a family member is off traveling the world… and meanwhile, you’re sitting there scrolling with no big announcement of your own. 

It’s an easy trap to fall into. Before long, you start measuring your everyday life against everyone else’s highlight reel. The ordinary starts to lose its beauty. We start believing that those shining moments we see online are supposed to be our everyday normal – and if they aren’t, then somehow we must be falling behind. 

If the enemy can get us caught in this mindset, then he has us exactly where he wants us - discouraged, worn out, and never satisfied. 

But contentment isn’t something that happens when our circumstances finally change. For me, it wasn’t a sudden revelation or a moment of peak spirituality that taught me this. It came unexpectedly, reading through the book of Philippians, and realizing that contentment is a learned behavior - a skill we must practice. Contentment doesn’t usually come naturally to us, but through our reliance on Him, we can learn how to experience both, even through seasons marked by discontentment.

The lie that “I’ll be happy when…” is easy to believe, but it’s so far from the truth. We’ve all been there - telling ourselves we’ll finally feel joy when life looks different, when prayers are answered, when circumstances improve.

That’s why I find it so ironic that Philippians is often called one of the most joyful books of the Bible. Paul wrote it while he was imprisoned. And yet, from that place, he penned the words, “for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11).

Paul was convinced that his surroundings and present circumstances did not have the power to control his contentment. That truth was deeply convicting to me, because our contentment is not dependent upon our circumstances. 

If you’ve ever painted, you know what happens when you set a dirty paintbrush into a clear glass jar of water. The water becomes cloudy, filled with swirling colors. Sometimes, that’s how contentment feels for me. Nothing on the outside changes, but our hearts do. The cloudiness remains, the colors are still mixed together, yet eventually, everything settles. When it does, let your heart grow quiet in His presence and rely on Him as your true source of satisfaction.

Elisabeth Elliot said it best, “The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.”