Strength Beyond Circumstances
Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. -Philippians 4:11-13
You’re life could be so much better if only you had… I’m not sure how you would finish that sentence, but there’s probably a product or company that can help you get it. It’s a marketer’s job to sow discontentment in our lives, and then offer us the perfect solution at a bargain monthly payment.
But Paul has learned the secret every marketer doesn’t want you to know, and that is the secret to contentment. It’s important to note that Paul wrote this toward the end of his life, while he was a prisoner in Rome. He wasn’t talking about being content whether his vacation was camping or a five star resort. He had suffered incredibly because he was an apostle of Jesus Christ and wouldn’t stop proclaiming salvation through Jesus. 1 Corinthians 11:23-28 gives a startling list of the things he endured:
I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.
Yet he can still say he’s learned how to be content no matter what. His circumstances varied, but his contentment remained constant. How? Because he learned he can do everything through Christ, who gives him strength. The trial tested truth was that Paul could endure anything because of the strength he had in Christ. He could withstand and be content in any God ordained circumstance because Christ was living in him.
Contentment “is not escape from the battle, but rather an abiding peace and confidence in the midst of the battle.”[1] This peace comes from Christ alone. As Elisabeth Elliot said, “The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.”[2]
Through the power of Christ, we too can be content in all circumstances. Christ’s power is a resource we have as believers, one we can draw upon through our relationship and fellowship with him. There is nowhere we can go, and nothing we can endure, that will take us beyond Christ’s power to see us through it.
As believers, we can enjoy what is lovely in this world, and thank God for it. We can and should be grateful for the good circumstances, the fullness and the plenty. And because of the power of Christ in us, the spiritual satisfaction we have in him, we can be content in times of emptiness, little, and loss. We can draw upon this never ending resource no matter what is going on in our lives and say, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

[1] Wiersbe, NT, 654.
[2] Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1995), 19.
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