Steve Webster
1 Corinthians 13:1-4
Philippians 4:10-13
- What does the word “envy” mean in 1 Corinthians 13:4?
- Respond to this quote: “Comparison is the enemy of joy”.
- How does social media sometimes feed envy and covetousness in our lives?
- What does the word “boast” mean in 1 Corinthians 13:4?
- How does the song “How Deep the Father’s Love For Us” speak about boasting?
- How does complacency destroy contentment?
- What does the apostle Paul say about building contentment in our lives?
- Have you ever experienced a gap between what we expect and experience from people? What should we do about that?
- What is contentment? What ISN’T contentment?
- Can we be disappointed and contented at the same time?
- What is the connection between feeding yourself and contentment?
- How do our circumstances affect our contentment?
- What is the secret to contentment (Philippians 4:13)?
- How do Paul’s circumstances in the writing of his letter to the Philippians make his counsel that much more incredible?
- Consider this quote this week as you pursue contentment:
“Contentment is not satisfaction. It is the grateful, faithful, fruitful use of what we have, little or much. It is to take the cup of Providence, and call upon the name of the Lord. What the cup contains is its contents. To get all that is in the cup is the act and art of contentment. Not to drink because one has but half a cup, or because one does not like its flavor, or because somebody else has silver to one’s own glass, is to lose the contents; and that is the penalty, if not the meaning, of discontent. No one is discontented who employs and enjoys to the utmost what he has. It is high philosophy to say, we can have just what we like if we like what we have; but this much at least can be done, and this is contentment,—to have the most and best in life by making the most and best of what we have.”
… Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901), Thoughts for Every-day Living, New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1901, p. 54
