Be Content! – You’ll have a better quality of life
By Yinka Oyekan

Jesus said come to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Freedom from anxiety and worry can only every come because we are living in the presence of God. Peace is a person who carries us through our personal circumstances.

Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. NIV

So be content. The idea of contentment comes from a Greek word that means “independence” or “self-sufficiency.” Paul used the word in a Christian sense to show that real satisfaction or sufficiency comes from God: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (

For many contentment appears to reside in possessions and at first reading of scripture you might think that some godly people had the same attitude.

Ps 16:6-8 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. 7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. NIV

Yet read carefully, for you will find that the truly Godly person considers  their real treasure to be the known presence of God. It was the loss of “intimacy” with God which Job longed for in all his suffering

Job 29:4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, NIV

The pain of financial loss, the devastation of family loss, the boils and sickness afflicting him personally, all meant nothing compared to this one thing the sense of intimate friendship with God.

Heaven encourages us not to fret when things go wrong.

Ps 37:7-9 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. 8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret–it leads only to evil. 9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. NIV

It is precisely at the point of trouble that many people forget relationship with God when in fact they need him the most. Life is hard and throws many hard things at us but remember that in all circumstances God is God.

There are many things in the west we need to change our minds about and the quality and quantity of our possessions is one of them, a state of mind in which one’s desires are confined to his lot whatever it may be is a good thing.

This is not to say that we should not stretch ourselves and improve ourselves through education, apprenticeship, servanthood etc, but it does mean that we live with God in such an intimacy that possessions mean little to us.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Value systems change in the heart of the individual who has God as their treasure. Ethics is summed up in love and ambition is never selfish but has a community dimension to it.

“James 3:16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

As we watch the world around us suffer financially from all kinds of difficulties, let us consider how we might help our neighbours and those around us. Pray particularly for Barnabas as it pursues new ministry particularly CAP a timely and new debt relieving ministry that RCC will be pioneering next year, pray particularly for Sue Winyard who will be leading it and Nathan who will be supporting her. Pray also  for Jubilee and Whitley as they Pioneer new congregations. Pray specifically for Ely who are releasing Michel and Kathie to plant a church with Whitley Community Church. Pray for their finances as they go through challenging steps of faith.

If any of us are going through financial difficulty please don’t burry your head in the sand, let us all talk about it so that we can support each other.

Jesus has told us not to worry, therefore whatever we have, whether plenty or little, Jesus asks us to trust him for our life. Be content for in contentment we are told in scripture there is great gain (1 Tim 6:6)

Matthew 6:25-26  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? NIV

You are precious to God, remember, the whole world was made by him for you to enjoy, he is a God who provides. So stop worrying about your life, be content, if you find your contentment in him you will have a better quality of life.