When Paul spoke of his own level of contentment in Phillipians 4, he didn’t compare his life with someone else’s life. He didn’t assume the worst about someone’s life in order to be ok with his own. Paul considered God’s goodness and His ability to sustain him in any season – seasons of need and seasons of abundance.
What is within us that seeks to find our own contentment by assuming the worst in someone else’s life? Why do we say to ourselves and others when observing the lives of others from a distance, “You don’t know what they’re dealing with. So don’t look at them and feel bad about what you’re dealing with.” Why do we have to look at someone’s “good” from the outside and assume the worst on the inside just you feel better about our lives? Why can’t be see their “good” and simply we happy for them without knowing all the details?
Why are we getting a sense of satisfaction in our lives assuming the worst in someone else’s life? This is not ok! Neither is advising another person to do so, just to feel better about their lives. Comparing ourselves to others then feeling bad about our lives is not good. Comparing ourselves to others to feel better about our lives is not good either!
You see a snapshot of someone’s happiness on social media or otherwise, and you choose to dismiss it and assume the worse or focus on the possiblity that something could still be wrong. Instead of celebrating or expressing some form of happiness for them, your first response is to dismiss the idea of celebrating or being genuinely happy for them in that moment because you choose to assume and focus on the potential of trouble they’re having behind the scenes that you know nothing about.
Here’s the truth: If this is the case, you’re being provoked by a spirit of jealousy, envy, discontentment and/or pride. Some of us need to learn contentment and humility. We need to learn how to have genuine happiness for others even when it’s not our turn. And we don’t gain that by trying find reasons not to be happy for others in order to be ok with our own lives.
So… No! It’s not ok to feel better about your life assuming the worst about someone else’s. If that’s your method, you’ll only become more discontent with your own life and more critical of others. This may be the reason some of us aren’t progressing in life the way we want to. We haven’t learned to be content with our own lives. And we don’t know how to be happy for others while we’re in the waiting room. And until some of us learn this, we may have to spend longer than we want in the waiting rooms of life.
We need to learn contentment. We need to focus on God’s ability to sustain us in EVERY season of life. And we need to learn to be happy and rejoice with others.
Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
Philippians 4:11-12 NASB2020
*Tressa Jo
BeyondSeeLevel 