The wealthiest and wisest man who ever lived said the problem of mankind is that people are not satisfied. His name was Solomon. In the book of Ecclesiastes, he wrote about the emptiness inside us that can drive us to seek satisfaction through selfish pleasures. But he said that just will not work. The more we try to find fulfillment through pleasures, the more empty we will feel. He knew that by revelation, and he had learned it by experience. What were his final words about the the solution to the restless feeling many have inside? “Fear God and keep His commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The apostle Paul was not a free man when he wrote to the Christians at Philippi. He had been through good times and bad times in life, and he had learned from them. He learned by experience to be content. 

This episode caps off a series on living a selfless, giving life. 

Read about this subject

• Scripture: Philippians 4:11-13; I Timothy 6:7-8; Hebrews 13:5
• “Christian Contentment” in Annual Lesson Commentary, 1950, Fourth Quarter, Lesson 2

Listen to more on this subject 

• "America Through the Eyes of Isaiah", track 22 “The Furnace of Affliction”