Contentment in Constant Frustration | Content Ambition
We need to rely on the sufficiency of God's grace in your frustrated weakness and recognize he may be sifting something out of your life.
"For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." Paul attests that he has learned the secret of contentment to endure all things through Christ.
But what if all the circumstances are terrible? What if there is no break, no relief? What if frustration attaches itself to you like a tapeworm, crawling inside of you to stay hidden yet wreck your day?
I imagine we have all had those days when frustration decides to become our best friend for the day. From the moment we wake up to go and brush our teeth to the moment we lie down, there are times when frustration will not read the room and excuse itself out the door of your life.
I've had those days. I wake up late, in a rush, with no time to read my Bible, drink coffee, or work out. I leave as my wife and child are scrambling in a bad mood, so I feel even worse. I get to work, and the tasks of the day seem very meaningless and unenjoyable, even if they are the things I normally get excited to do. Or school seems like a chore as I sit in class for hours on end, unable to absorb the information and truly learn. I go to lunch and make a terrible decision either in taste or quality. I go back, my mind full of stress and anxiety as I am ready to go home. Then, I realize that I have no time to work out or try and get the things done that are needed, and I lay on the couch to zone out watching short-form videos that add no value to my life. Then I regret watching those as I see the day wisp away. I go to bed, angry, uncomfortable, unsatisfied. The constant frustration still hasn't left my body, and I go to bed, feeling as if this day was truly evil and I made no effort to redeem the time.
How do we have contentment in these circumstances? Not the ones such as we read, where Paul suffered immensely but reiterated that he did it for the glory of the Lord and counted it joy to suffer? Not like Peter and John, facing off against the Sanhedrin, defending the faith. Not like the knight going to fight the dragon, facing hunger, thirst, loneliness.
What about the daily toil of life? I speak of those days when frustration is a constant avalanche, burying you under its weight and pushing you down into the ground, suffocating you to the point where you want to do nothing else. What do you do?
We need to rely on the sufficiency of God's grace in your frustrated weakness and recognize he may be sifting something out of your life.
Paul wrote of this constant frustration as a "thorn in his side" given to him as a "messenger of Satan" (2 Cor. 12:7). On its face, this could seem cruel and unusual. Why would God sovereignly allow a messenger of Satan to be Paul's thorn in his flesh? It was a hindrance of annoyance, an obstacle to prevent Paul from becoming conceited due to the surpassing greatness of the revelations God was letting him in on. Paul had been caught up into the "third heaven/Paradise" (12:1-3). He received the Gospel by "direct revelation in Christ" (Gal. 1:11-12). Paul has just preached against the "super-apostles" who are teaching false doctrine and claiming to be superior to him and other Christians.
He asks the Lord three times to remove it. He not only asked but pleaded with the Lord to remove it. I have had those times in my life when I have asked God over and over again to remove this frustration. I see it. I feel that I have learned the answer. Paul mentions twice that it was to prevent him from being conceited, emphasizing this point to his readers.
But God denies his request and responds by saying, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
My brother and I grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. We had seasons, trees, chicken farms, cow pastures, and grass. Lots of grass, but not the green kind you see on television or the bluegrass you hear about in Kentucky. We had the grass that caught everything in it. We would often walk outside without our shoes on, only to find ourselves with a splinter in our skin. One of our parents would normally attempt to help pull it out.
The Lord is not the heartwarming parent who is coming to help remove it. Instead, the Lord responds, "my grace is enough for you. I don't need to remove it, and I'm not going to right now. My power is made perfect in weakness."
I bet Paul, at first, was like, "thanks God, but how is my thorn in the flesh making your power perfect?" This had to be frustrating, especially when Paul knows that God could relieve him at any point in time. He preaches on God's sovereignty over suffering. He knows, and yet, he pleaded with God multiple times to take it away.
Yet, Paul does not respond with frustration. He says, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (12:9b-10).
How can Paul boast? How can he be content with all these constant frustrations in his life?
He listened to what God said.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
God's grace is sufficient. It is enough for Paul's contentment no matter the pain and frustration he is feeling. God's power in Paul is made perfect in weakness. God's power is perfect (end of story).
But God uses suffering so that we would rely on the sufficiency of God's grace in our frustrated weaknesses.
God allows suffering to come into our lives to refine us and to teach us how to be more and more dependent on him. -R.C. Sproul
We learn how to be more content in his sufficiency through suffering. When the frustrations arise in your job, family, school, or personal walks, we learn that God's power is made perfect/complete in us through it. God's power cannot be shown if there is nothing to show it against. God's power cannot be perfect if we are able to face life by ourselves. God's power cannot work powerfully within us if we are able to crush our frustrations with our own power and will.
This is not God making a power play. It is him saying, "you have zero sufficiency in yourself to overcome being conceited. You are too weak. This is why my power is working within you through the thorn in your side. Even though it pierces and hurts, we rely on him in his strength.
We must also realize what Paul is referring to constantly in this passage- conceit.
We must learn to be content in constant frustrations by recognizing he may be sifting something out of your life.
God put the thorn in Paul's side so that he could sift out the conceit that would be in him. He did not want Paul to think too highly of himself. He did not want him to think he was a bigger deal than he was.
In Philippians 3 (right before another contentment verse), Paul says that we should watch out for those who put confidence in the flesh, and that if anyone has a right for it, he does. He puts out his resume as a Pharisaical, Roman, Christian apostle, but he asserts, "I count everything as loss." It is garbage to put confidence in the flesh.
Where was Paul's thorn? In the flesh.
God uses constant frustrations in the flesh to teach us contentment in our dependence on him. He used the thorn to sanctifiedly sift out conceit from Paul. He can use the thorn in our flesh to sanctifiedly sift something out of us.
Our preference to do something else with our lives.
Our pride to think that our way is better.
Our pursuit of the things of rubbish.
I know for me, he has used constant frustration to remind me why I am called to follow him and obey him. My life is not about Christian Townson. It is not about my wants and desires. It does not concern my preferences. There are days when I want everything in my life to press pause and give me breathing room to sit down, drink coffee, read, and write. I want this, but this is me paving my own sufficiency. This is not what God wants, so he uses constant frustrations to bring me back to him and his sufficiency.
He uses the constant frustrations in our lives to remind us to recognize what he is doing and to sift out the sin that we so closely cling to.
When Paul recognizes this, he boasts in gladness for his weakness that Christ's power can work in him.
For us, we should be content and boast when God works in us through our frustrations. We should be content with our weakness so that he shows us his strength.
We can be content in the midst of constant frustration. We need to rely on God's sufficiency and recognize that he may be sifting something out of us.
God's grace is contentment for us, and his power is made perfect in our constant frustrations.
A Question of Contentment: What are your constant frustrations? What is the thorn in your side? Why do you resist relying on God's sufficiency? What are you not content with?