Blogging Bridges: Destroying Discontentment

Jerry Bridges, "Respectable Sins" ch. 9 - Discontentment.

"Respectable sins" are those sins that we take lightly, but God does not. The next one Bridges covers is discontentment.

I just read the other day that people will spend more (and save less) depending on how much television they watch. The same holds true for time spent in shopping malls. This shouldn't surprise us, but it does point out that we live in a culture that is constantly stoking the flames of discontentment. Madison Avenue wants us (needs us?) to be discontent. That way, we will release hold of our dollars and sense.

In such an environment, contentment is rare. Yet God wants us to learn contentment. Some of us may be in God's school of contentment even now: When we are tempted to be disappointed with our possessions, circumstances, or relationships, God simultaneously urges us to exercise the muscles of contentment. These muscles may not get much use, but as we exercise them they will provide us with needed strength.

What most helped me in this chapter was this sentence:

"But as Amy Carmichael so helpfully brought out, it is neither in resignation nor submission but only in acceptance that we find peace."

There are many ways to deal with discontentment. We can resign ourselves to God's will, we can submit obediently to God, but that doesn't change anything but our outward response. To truly destroy discontentment we must accept what God has given. This distinction was very helpful to me, and provided a clear path for prayer.

A friend of Bridges provides us with this prayer, which you can make your own:

Lord, I am willing to --
Receive what you give,
Lack what you withhold,
Relinquish what you take.

And Scripture provides us with Psalm 139, also a prayer. Click here to read Psalm 139, or better yet, open the Bible in a quiet place and read through it. This psalm leads does not directly address discontentment, but it is a potent force toward contentment!

One final thought: Bridges wisely reminded us at the beginning of the chapter that there is a holy discontentment. This is a discontentment with our spiritual growth; we should always long for more of God and His Spirit. See Psalm 42. If we desire discontentment, let's at least be discontent about the right things!