Contentment is the character of patience. We can force ourselves to ‘be patient and wait,’ to allow God to work his will in his time. But if this patience is not felt, or practiced with a willing spirit, then it will only lead to frustration. We can attempt to be patient, but in the very act of doing so create a restlessness of the spirit that causes us to be in fact more impatient than ever–even though we continue to wait.

For this reason Jesus teaches us not just to wait, but not to worry. The birds of the air are provided for and the flowers of the field are sustained in beauty for their appointed time, so God will also care for you. This is the message of contentment, because to simply teach waiting, or patience, is a good discipline, producing self-control, but the spirit remains unsatisfied.

Contentment is not a discipline of practice, but one of perspective. Contentment says “whatever it is that I need is already given, so what is there to wait for?”

Sometimes what is given is for the future. In this case it is hope that is given, and waiting for the fulfillment of that hope is a contentment in its gift for the future. It is not, however, a waiting for what one feels is needed in the present.

This is why it is a matter of perspective. We make plans and strive to succeed, we make goals and build hopes. In all this God is there, so we think, to help and encourage and make our lives wonderful. We feel oh so pious when we tell ourselves to wait on God; that he will give what we need. This is good and true, for it is God’s promise. But what we need is not what we are told by our culture’s dictums that “you deserve”. What we need is a joy in not having, so that our spirit is truly content with nothing.

The nothing is what the world percieves to be the essence of God’s promises. We do not understand a promise to be a thing; but rather the foreshadowing of something; its guarantee for the future. But God’s promise is spoken by his Word, through which all things were created; his Word which is the reality of the person Jesus Christ. So a promise from God is the essence in itself.

This is why it is a matter of perspective. We need what we do not have until Jesus tells us that God will provide. Then we know that we are provided for and realize that what we lacked was not the thing, but the contentment without it.