Hattie’s Hangout: Finding Unchanging Contentment

It is easy for our culture to fall prey to distractions. 

For instance, every time you open a new web page, links to other sites fly across the glowing screen, hoping to lure us to more opportunities. After hours of around the clock news, the top daily stories quickly lose relevance to newer content. This cycle repeats.

A flood of notifications hit our screens every minute, drawing us back. 

The desire to obtain the next best thing sows seeds into our soil, reaping a culture distracted by change. 

But is all of this change beneficial? 

However exciting or thrilling, this change often debilitates anyone’s ability to find true contentment. We see the heartless wandering of people never understanding satisfaction, looking in places void of genuine answers. After running in circles, in fear of missing the newest cultural fad, seekers of change find themselves in a bottomless pit of discontentment.

This culture of change only provides temporary happiness. Briefly entertaining; never lasting. In this culture, true contentment becomes impossible. 

While surrounded by many seeking distractions, believers in Christ must not hold back on to sharing the truth of joy-filled contentment, found only in the unchanging God, the God of the Bible. No matter what time period, the character of the Lord drastically contrasts the ways of culture. 

Falling prey to these changes leads to blind eyes distracted from seeing the almighty source of eternal contentment in Christ. 

The Prophet Isaiah rejoiced in this unchanging character when he proclaims the “Lord is everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable” in Isaiah 40:28. 

If the Church does not delight in this, we risk falling into the same distractions as our culture. These distractions steer us away from Christ.

Instead, our actions must be rooted in the deepest contentment knowing and proclaiming the unchanging truth of the Lord.

Jeremiah Burroughs wrote contentment is “that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.” Worshiping the Lord and finding contentment in the finished work of Christ means believing the Gospel is an ultimate and intimate gift, not a product that changes or expires. 

Culture seeks a god that suits their desires and changing needs centered on the superficiality of success, power and money. Gospel culture, however, proclaims the one-true God that never bends or changes to the ways of sin. “The Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change,” according to James 1:17 defies this culture of change. The unchanging nature of God is the answer for those running in circles desperately looking for satisfaction. 

We should never worship our worldly possessions, loving the gifts rather than the Giver. Instead, Christians must boldly live differently. All creation will wither away with time, but our Savior’s blessings will be everlasting. 

That is a truth that never changes.

Let us bring praise to the Lord that his steadfast love and mercy never changes. In this we do not deserve, but I will forever rejoice. As David uttered his song of thanks in 1 Chronicles 16:8-36, I pray we sing the same out of our sweet contentment in knowing and seeing the love of the Lord, ever faithful and ever sure. 

If the Lord changed like the culture, we would have no foundation to cling to. People searching for substance should see followers of Christ breaking away from this culture of change and resting in the contentment of Christ. 

It is the unchanging character of God that makes contentment in Christ real and substantial.

 Let us rejoice in this. 

Hattie Troutman is the Editor-in-Chief. Follow her on Twitter at @hattrout.