Content Whatever The Circumstances

Php 4:11  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
 
Paul, while being denied every comfort, wrote the above words from a dark prison cell.
 
A story is told of a king who went to his garden one morning, only to find everything withered and dying. 

He asked the oak tree that stood near the gate what the trouble was.

The oak said it was tired of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine tree.

The pine was troubled because it could not bear grapes like the grapevine.

The grapevine was determined to throw its life away because it could not stand erect
and produce fruit as large as peaches.

The geranium was fretting because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac.
 
And so it went throughout the garden.

Yet coming to a violet, the king found its face as bright and happy as ever and said, “Well, violet, I’m glad to find one brave little flower in the midst of this discouragement.

You don’t seem to be the least disheartened.”
 
The violet responded,“No, I’m not....

I know I’m small, yet I thought if you wanted an oak or a pine or a peach tree or even a lilac, you would have planted one. 

Since I knew you wanted a violet, I’m determined to be the best little violet I can be.
 
Others may do a greater work, But you have your part to do...
 
And no one in all God’s family Can do it as well as you.
 
People who are God’s without reservation “have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

His will becomes their will, and they desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do.

They strip themselves of everything, and in their nakedness find everything restored a hundredfold.