As I was reading through Philippians 4 again, it occurred to me that perhaps verses 4-9 are part of the instruction from God necessary to learn contentment.
"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you."
It seems to me that all these things are necessary for true contentment. See, the opposite of rejoicing is as follows: "moan, sorrow, sulk, be in a huff, grieve, mourn" (wordhippo.com). I don't know about you, but when I am any of those antonyms of rejoicing listed above, I am far from content. I would go so far as to say it is impossible to be content when experiencing at least most of those verbs. I usually moan, sulk, and huff when things aren't going my way or aren't happening fast enough. I grieve, mourn and am sorrowful when something is taken away from me. The way I see it, we must learn to rejoice in all situations no matter how our flesh desires to react. If we are truly rejoicing in all things, learning to be content will come much easier because we will be exceedingly glad and thriving in whatever life throws at us.
"Let your gentleness be known to all men." Hmmm. Some other words for gentleness include the following: "mildness, calmness, tenderness, placidity, quietness, softness, lightness, tranquility, mellowness, restfulness, peacefulness" (wordhippo.com). I think all of those things would definitely make learning contentment easier to achieve than if we were harsh all the time!
Verse 6 is probably one of the most obvious ways to learn contentment: "Be anxious for nothing". Since anxiousness comes from being unsatisfied, I think it is safe to conclude that it is not in the definition of contentment. A person who is content is not worrying about things. He or she is satisfied. Besides, what does worry profit? Nothing positive that I know of. Yet, how easy is it to worry and be anxious about various situations in life? Something to think about for sure! Giving everything to God is necessary to learn contentment. And spending time in prayer, sharing our requests and giving thanks for what we have will help remind us of all that we do have.
Then, I think that by focusing our thoughts on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy, we will already be setting ourselves up for contentment. It is when we think on the things that we wish we had, the things others have, the evil of the world, and the hopelessness that seems to be infiltrating society today that we become unsatisfied and unhappy with life. We should also spend time meditating on the things that we have been taught over the years - through godly mentors, our parents, daily devotions, the Scriptures, etc. This too will help us learn contentment.
Honestly, learning contentment will take work. We will have to be consciously turning our thoughts on God-honoring things, continuously walking in the Spirit, meticulously setting our attitude in the right direction, and always looking upwards to the One who is able to do abundantly more than we could ever do on our own. We must remember that we cannot learn contentment ourselves. It will be through Christ who gives us strength that we will learn to live a life of contentment, and it will take work, courage, and much prayer.
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