Resignation or Acceptance?

I've been thinking about Philippians 4: 10-23- What portion to highlight for our Bible study wrap-up? so I pondered while washing dishes, hanging clothes, cutting garden lettuce. . .

. . .for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, 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. . . (Philippians 4: 11-12)


Hmmm, God put Paul into the school of contentment. . .and I'm there too, all of us, for the rest of our lives-it's a good place to be, although contentment doesn't come naturally to human flesh- it's hard work to cultivate and practice contentment, and sometimes, . . .well, I feel like dropping out of God's school of contentment, Imagine that?


So, about contentment Webster's says: satisfied-I like that definition; it means filled up, enough-the expression of the Psalmist's heart, For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good. (Psalm 107:9)
And the dictionary also says about contentment: resigned to circumstances.
But, no! . . . .resignation does not equal contentment! In his excellent book Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges writes that we can grudgingly resign ourselves to difficult circumstances because we have no other choice, harboring in our hearts a smoldering discontentment. . .

In contrast, you and I find contentment not in resignation but in acceptance.
Jerry Bridges writes, "Acceptance means that you accept your circumstances from God, trusting that He unerringly knows what is best for you and that in His love He purposes only what is best.

Soul, stay in God's school of contentment. . . . a worthy pursuit.