You can be happy whether you have more than enough to eat, or whether you’re hungry; whether you have a lot, or nothing. You can go through a rough time with a smile on your face and a song of praise in your heart. You do not have to respond to challenging circumstances by falling apart. But being content in any circumstance isn’t something that happens naturally - society has trained us to focus on lack and think about and meditate on the negative, all of which leads to dissatisfaction and unhappiness. We have to train ourselves to be content, to stop focusing on the negative and what we don’t have, and start focusing on the positive and be thankful for what we do have.
What we have in Christ is far more valuable than what we could ever have in the natural. Sadly, most of us are focused on what we don’t have in the natural and we aren’t really considering the limitless supply we that we have in Christ. If the blessings we have in Christ were real to us and we focused on them, we would not give into dissatisfaction.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”
Ephesians 1:3 KJV
We are blessed (past tense) with all (not just some, but all) spiritual blessings. Many people think that just because they are “spiritual blessings” that it means they are blessings for us to experience one day when we’re dead. Or they don’t believe that the blessings are real tangible blessings – just “spiritual” ones. These blessings are real and they are for the here and now, not just for one day when we join the Lord in heaven. God is a spirit (John 4:24) and He spoke the world into existence (Genesis 1:3; Psalm 33:9; Hebrews 11:3). That means that the spiritual reality existed before our physical reality. The spiritual is eternal and will outlast the physical. All the blessings we have in Christ are real. If only we were more conscious of them, we would not so easily give in to dissatisfaction - because what we have in Christ will be ours for eternity, while everything we have in this life is temporary.
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue”
2 Peter 1:3 KJV
If you have Jesus, you don’t lack anything. God’s divine power (the power that makes Him God, and created and sustains everything that exists) has given (past tense) us all things (not just some) for life and godliness. We have all we need to live our lives and be godly. If it seems like there is lack in our lives, it is not God withholding from us. It’s either the devil attacking us and preventing us from walking in God’s blessing, or it’s merely that we don’t know what we have in Christ or don’t know how to walk in the blessing. What we don’t know is causing us to perish (Hosea 4:6). All things for life and godliness have been given to us, but we experience it “through the knowledge of Him”. We experience it in proportion to our knowing Christ. It’s like any relationship: the more you know the person, the more fruitful the relationship can be. Adam “knew” Eve and she conceived and had a child (Genesis 4:1). The more we come to know Jesus, the more we are able to walk in the blessing of God. But you have to know that you have the blessing, and you have to focus on it. If you’re more focused on the lack in your life than on what you have in Christ, you will be discontent. It will lead you towards unhappiness.
Stop focusing on the things you may lack and start focusing on the endless supply you have in Christ!