Week 10: Gratitude and Contentment

Contentment isn’t something we’re born with. Paul says he learned it, and he wrote that from custody, in a thank-you note to a church that had sent him help. This lesson works through Philippians 4:10–20 and finds that half the circumstances Paul names are good times, because plenty can pull us away from God as surely as need. His secret turns out to be a Person: I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me. From there the lesson turns to 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and the command to give thanks in everything, which is where contentment begins. It closes at the Lord’s table, where Jesus gave thanks over the bread on the night he was betrayed.