April 2009 Devotionals

April 17, 2009

Content? Even in Hard Times?

A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford

Yes, we’re certainly facing some hard times. It reminds me of the “Great Depression” of the ’30's. In those days in Dallas, many people lived in cardboard boxes underneath the viaducts crossing the Trinity River. I remember my father taking us there to minister to the hungry, dirty, discouraged people who had no place else to live. My husband’s dad was a skilled carpenter, a hard-working, competent and dependable workman, but during the depression he used to walk eight miles every day into down-town Seattle, hoping to find a day’s work. His mother used food stamps for “surplus commodities,” and his father raised a large garden. They didn’t go hungry, but they had to cancel their life insurance because they couldn’t afford the dime a month it cost.

But looking back on those difficult days, we remember them as happy days. We really were conscious of God’s provision of every day’s need. Daddy would say, “Living from hand to mouth isn’t bad at all, when it’s from God’s hand to our mouth.”

This contentment is what Paul talks about in Philippians 4:11-13:

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: everywhere 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 who strengthens me.

“I have learned the secret of being content!” Paul said. And we can learn it, too, as we remember that Christ wants to give us everything we need. What a wonderful gift is contentment, to enjoy every day to the full, whatever the circumstance!

The crowning joy of being content in God’s goodness is found in Philippians 4:19. Because the Philippians had so generously provided financial help for God’s work, Paul says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

When we live with contentment with what God has given, when we share His goodness with others, then we have the wonderful promise that “My God will supply all your needs.” And how will He supply them? “According to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Our contentment rests on the sure promise of God, and that is sufficient, even in the hardest times.