God is more interested in your character than your comfort. He’s not going to give you things if you haven’t learned the principle of contentment first.

Contentment is not a lack of ambition. It’s not a lack of goals. Contentment means your happiness doesn’t depend on your circumstances.

How do you eliminate discontent? You eliminate the cause: comparing. We compare everything in this country — lawns, cars, husbands and wives, clothes, the education of our kids (we even put “My Kid Was Student of the Month” on car bumpers).

Whenever you compare, you’re going to become discontent. You’ve got to learn to stop comparing yourself to others.

Paul says in Philippians 4:12a, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (NIV). Contentment does not come naturally; it is something we have to learn. If we do this, God promises to meet all our financial needs.

The Bible says, “There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:6-7 NRSV).