The key to thanksgiving is learning contentment
by Keith Bassham
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
… But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-13, 19)
Thanksgiving is filled with years of tradition, almost to the point of excluding the core idea of giving thanks. And a major part of that tradition has to do with American history — the part about the pilgrims and Plymouth Rock specifically. While I truly admire and appreciate those stories, you will find this article is certified pilgrim- and Squanto-free.
Why do I do this? Last year it came to me that a lot of people in media were talking about thankfulness and being thankful and the need for being thankful, and I began to ask, “To whom or to what are they being thankful?” Since a growing percentage of the population claims not to believe in God, who do they intend to thank? Add to that the larger group who acknowledges some form of deity yet deems that deity to be mostly irrelevant or hobbled, and the same question applies. Who are these people thanking, and for what?
People in the United States were not always so. Two months ago we observed the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks by Muslim extremists on our nation. A few years after the 9/11 attacks, David McCullough’s book 1776 was published, and in an interview he said the attack was one of the reasons he wrote the book.
He said, “I think one of the catalysts was September 11. I remember at the time, when we were all numb, people were saying that this was the darkest, most dangerous, most difficult time this country has ever been through. And I thought, ‘No, it isn’t. And I’ll tell you about one time that was a lot darker and a lot more difficult. And that was the year 1776.’”
He is right. The Americans had chosen to declare their independence, and most of them were prepared to fight for it if necessary, but any savvy observer of the times would have thought the idea ridiculous. England was the most powerful nation on earth. When it came time for the actual fight, they sent 400 ships loaded with men and armaments to the port of New York, but knowing their own strength, they did not even bother to send their largest and most powerful ships. The Americans never could muster more than about half the number of soldiers delivered by the British (on paper Washington sometimes had as many as 20,000, but most of the time the number was much smaller), and the first major battles resulted in humiliating retreats for the Continental Army.
From the beginning, however, these first Americans witnessed again and again the hand of God upon their enterprise. After they were able to force the British from Boston with a daring overnight maneuver and the incalculable aid of a strong wind that worked against the British battleships, one involved clergyman said it was “as if the hand of the Almighty was directing things.” Devout Abigail Adams, observing the British leaving the Boston area afterwards wrote, “Surely it is the Lord’s doings and it is marvelous in our eyes.” They were thankful people, and they knew who to thank.
Later, near the end of summer, Washington had been outsoldiered and outfought at New York with a superior force, and it was necessary that his army escape into New Jersey, and again the weather enabled 9,000 men to cross a river into safety with wind and fog covering their movements. Events such as these cause McCullough to write, “Incredibly, yet again, circumstances — fate, luck, Providence, the hand of God, as would be said so often — intervened.”
More often than not, those involved in the story used the word Providence. How many times could the war have gone the other way, how often did the fate of our infant country hang by a thin thread? The wind could have gone the other way, or a fog may have lifted, or a general could have moved to the right instead of the left, and the revolution would have been over.
On January 14, 1776, George Washington would write to Joseph Reed, “If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it.” (David McCullough, 1776, p. 7)
Those who lived through that year said that God was in the mix, and honest historians since have said that the birth of this nation was a miracle of God. I grant that not all involved in the Revolution were Christian believers. One of the most ardent patriots was the skeptic Thomas Paine, and the religious views of Jefferson, Franklin, et al., are well-known (though I note even Jefferson’s crowning literary achievement, the Declaration of Independence, acknowledges the Creator and His rule over the earth). And yet, the theistic, and even Christian, influences on the birth and early prosperity of our country are clear and unmistakable. When Ben Franklin or any of his fellow non-Christians spoke of prayer or giving of thanks, they clearly were thinking that Some One was on the other end of the conversation.
We, on the other hand, are confessing Christians. We have no difficulty in finding the Addressee of our thanks and prayers. Our problem is more practical — that is, just doing it. So, now we come to our Bible text and see why that is so.
This entire section of Paul’s letter to the Philippians speaks of thanksgiving, contentment, and confidence in God. Briefly, he cites himself as an example in verse 9. Be like me. And he’s not full of himself. Remember, in the first chapter he had already told the Philippians that whether he lived or died in prison, the main thing was glorifying Christ and advancing the gospel. And he reminded them in chapter 2 that present circumstances are not an indicator of future prospects when he showed how Jesus humbled himself in this life, but that God had raised him to greatness. And in chapter 3 he told the Philippians that because Christ had grabbed him, he was grabbing back hard, going all in with his life and all the effort he could. So he tells us here, “What you’ve learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things.” Learning these things and practicing them gives you a certain stability, a confidence, or as Paul would say so elegantly in verse 11, “I am content.”
CONTENTMENT SHOWS FAITH IN GOD’S PROVIDENCE
What do we mean when we think about being content? One thing for sure — we’re talking about stability and not being shaken. Paul had addressed this a bit back in chapter one. When the Philippians were so anxious about Paul’s safety and what would happen to the gospel and what would happen to them if Paul died, he tried to talk them down: don’t be shaken up, he counseled. It will work out better this way.
Paul speaks and writes this way because he knows there is a secret in contentment: “I have learned …” Learned what: I have learned to be content with God’s providence.
Paul’s journey with the people in Philippi had started ten years before this letter. Not long after he left, they began to send him gifts to help him along with his mission. Money, food, supplies — whatever would be necessary for him to continue his missionary work. In some instances, it allowed him to minister in a place without making demands on the people he was ministering to. He had told the Corinthians, “I robbed other churches so I could serve you without charge.” The Philippians were among those he had “robbed.”
That’s why we read in verses 15 and 16 of chapter four, “Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.”
We learn in the Corinthian letters that this church, along with others in Macedonia, gave beyond their ability, even though they themselves were poor. And then, at some point, the gifts stopped. They lost track of Paul, or they lost the ability to give, or the occasion to deliver the gifts. Whatever happened, the money stopped.
That’s what we see in verse 10. They found him, and they picked up where they left off. Paul’s response is gratefulness, and a message: “I wasn’t worried.”
Why? Because the source of Paul’s provision is not the people, but God Himself. He had a patient confidence in God’s sovereign providence. You see that all through his life. He could do without, and, waiting on the Lord, he could be content. He knew every aspect of his life was all in God’s hands, and if God gave a proper season and a proper time and a proper opportunity, then those things that should be expressed would be expressed. There was no panic in heart.
Compare that with the attitudes during 1776 at the beginning of the revolution. The fathers and mothers of our country could clearly see the providence of God later, but at the time many were often panicky and anxious. Paul’s response is very different. He is not panicky. He is confident because of his knowledge of God’s providence.
CONTENTMENT IS SATISFACTION WITH LITTLE
And then, Paul is content because he has learned to be satisfied with relatively little. He’s not thinking God is going to make him wealthy — unlike a lot of prosperity teaching popular in western Christianity today — he doesn’t believe God is going to give him a big check. He just knows he’s going to make it the way God wants him to.
Look at verse 11. This is a kind of disclaimer after verse 10. He says, “Not that I speak from want,” in other words, “Oh I rejoiced when your gift came, I rejoiced so much when it came … not that I needed it … not that I’m speaking out of my own want. For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.”
We tend not to be content. We always want more. You know, as an American born in the 20th century, living as I do, I feel like I’ve won the lottery of life. I’ve got bills, and I’ve got health issues, and I’ve got taxes, and I’ve had times when I had way too much debt, and things got tight at certain times of the month, but compared to about 90 percent of the rest of the world, I am wealthy. And so are you. Today you may not feel wealthy, but that’s only because you’re comparing yourself to the mega-wealthy. Consider someone who works from age 25 to 65 and makes only $25,000 a year. Forget the huge value of benefits, pay raises, investments, and other income sources, including inheritance or Social Security. Even without these extras, in his lifetime this person of modest income will be paid $1 million. He or she will manage a fortune.
I have a misssionary friend in Zambia who works among people so poor that one of the best gifts he can bring to a village is a water well. He’s a church planter and an evangelist, of course, but he also helps them dig wells. Think about that the next time you get a glass of water. Wells can be pretty important when you don’t have them. And here’s the thing — though you are where you are, and those Zambians are where they are, Paul’s message to them would be the same message to us in terms of contentment: Be confident and learn to live with less than you actually have.
One other side benefit to this is that learning to be content with less will make you a better giver, and less tied to things. As you divest yourself of things you don’t need, you may find your own expenses will go down as well, and you thus have more to give.
CONTENTMENT MAKES YOU MORE INDEPENDENT OF CIRCUMSTANCES
Contentment is confidence in God’s providence, and learning to be satisfied with relatively little, and finally, it’s a sense of independence from circumstances. We’ve been kind of dancing around that when we read in verse 11, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,” and now in verse 12, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” I’ve had lots of stuff at times, and I’ve gone hungry at times. I can do whatever is needed.” In fact, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Now, I wonder how many people have read and quoted this verse out of its context, and then wondered why they couldn’t do just anything they wanted. “I can do all things through Christ” has a context. It’s related to being a giver, and being content with less, even going without food if that’s necessary. This is not a motivational slogan to fire you up. It’s a challenge. If you lost your job, lost your money, lost your home, lost your friends, lost everything … would you still cling to God and Christ? Paul says, I did, and you can, too, as you are strengthened by God.
Granted, that’s not a happy, happy thought to put on a calendar or a bumper sticker, but it’s the Word of God.
And while we’re here and on this subject of misapplied Scripture, let’s take a look at that verse that says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” and you will see the same thing. This is not an unconditional promise, it is a conditional promise. God’s promise to supply your needs is embedded in the context of faithful, generous, even sacrificial giving. Verse 16 says they met Paul’s needs, and now God would meet their needs to express His approval of their giving. God does not promise to take care of the needs of believers who are stingy, lazy, or irresponsible. On the other hand, if you are giving as the Lord expects, He will meet your needs.
Bottom line, contentment and a spirit of thanksgiving has less to do with getting what we want, and more to do with wanting what we already have. The promise is not that God will make you wealthy, but that he will give you strength. The Bible says, “To him who has no might, He increases strength.” And Isaiah says in chapter 40, that great and familiar 31st verse, that when we would faint and grow weary, we feel the power of God and mount up with wings as eagles. The Apostle says, “I have learned to be content. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”
Therefore, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”