The Apostle Paul testified from personal experience in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Contentment is not easily acquired. It cannot be gained by merely reading books on the subject or hearing inspiring messages.

Indeed, contentment is a virtue that must be learned. How then is contentment learned? Paul does not leave us to wonder. Instead, he stated in the very next verse: “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Philippians 4:12).

According to Paul’s testimony, contentment is learned in the following situations:

In fullness

Like a contented sheep resting in the presence of the Good Shepherd, contentment is learned in assurance of the fact that God satisfies fully. For a single person longing for marriage, the assurance that God satisfies fully is hard to understand. But Paul was evidently not married, and yet he understood that he was fully complete in Christ.

In hunger

Paul hungered many times when he spent days and nights in a dungeon. Many single young men and women spend their days focusing on their “hunger” for the satisfaction of marriage. In his physical hunger, Paul learned to focus upon the things that God had already supplied. Even when hungry, he was learning contentment.

I abound

The same God that brings darkness also brings light. The same God that sent the famine to the land also sent food to Elijah by the wings of the raven. The troubles, as well as the blessings, are part of the learning process in gaining contentment.

In need

If we are honest, very few of us actually suffer or “suffer need.” Even the most discontented person probably has food and clothing. Paul did indeed suffer basic needs. He sat in a cold jail cell without a cloak. He languished in prison with open wounds. He could rightly testify that in the difficult school of personal adversity, contentment is learned.

God still teaches us contentment today in the same way as He did then with Paul—by experience. Contentment is not just a lesson learned before marriage. Rather, this virtue continues to be learned in marriage and even after the death of one’s spouse. God’s greatest gifts, such as the virtue of contentment, often come wrapped in the plainest of packages.