The Great Gain in a Contented Heart

"But godliness with contentment is great gain." 1 Timothy 6:6
I'm insistently confronted by this precept. Where is my contentedness found? I've seen the harsh reality in my life that I often hold earthly things with a closed fist rather than an open hand. In opposition, I tend to hold heavenly things with an open hand that I should hold with a closed fist. I clench my fingers around financial stability, familial promise, and job security. I hold tightly to the promise of a future free of disease, dismay, and despair. Though they shouldn't be, I often find these things to be my objects of contentment, the sources of my security. But the Christian life is diametrically opposed to this folly. When Paul tells Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain, he is speaking from the position of immanent death. Paul knows his race is about to end in this life, that he will soon taste the presence of the Lord in Heaven. Death is real to him, it's looming around the corner. And he speaks of contentment, not sorrow. He exhorts the sufficiency of Christ, not the comforts of the world. True contentedness, contentedness that satisfies, is only ever found in God.
"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10
Paul acknowledges that difficulties will come, insults will be hurled, and weaknesses will choke us. But for the sake of Christ he chooses contentment over groaning. The temporary discomforts in this life are far outweighed by the glories of Jesus Christ. So, we muster-up strength amid distress because our weaknesses display His strength, because godliness with contentment is great gain.
"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." Philippians 4:11-12
Paul speaks again to the art of contentment in his letter to the Philippians. Not only is contentment something we have to choose, but it is something we have to learn. Paul was imprisoned during his writing of this letter to the Philippian church. Contentment is something he chose to invest himself in, and God faithfully taught him how to do so. Whether Paul experience gain or loss, abundance or deficiency, he knew how to be happy. He remained content because he intimately knew the fount of joy. He excelled in happiness despite his circumstances because his face was set to the things of Heaven, not of earth. We can only be instructed in contentment when we are intimately acquainted with our Savior. If our hope and joy is found in heavenly things (which it is) and if we know God by knowing His Word (which we do) then we have more than enough reason to invest ourselves diligently in the Word of God. We cannot know contentment without knowing the source from whence it comes.