- Hey guys, my name's Daniel Ritchie,

and I want to take a coupleminutes just to share with you

about what it means tobe content in Christ.

Because that's somethingI have struggled with

my entire life becauseI was born without arms

and I look around and I see

the rest of everybody in my life

living life with handsand using their thumbs

and I look at what I do and who I am

and I'm not that.

And I know that my situation

is never going to get better.

And so I sit here and go,God, how am I gonna have joy?

How am I gonna have peacewhen I know my situation,

my physical situation isnot gonna get any better?

And I love what Paul saysin Philippians chapter 4.

He just says, I've learned tobe content in whatever I'm in,

whether I have nothingwhether I have everything.

And he goes on to say in Philippians 4:13,

"I can do all things through Christ

who gives me the strength."

And that's coming from aguy who writes those words

as he sits in a prison cell

not knowing if he's gonna live or die

but he can say, I can becontent in whatever I'm in.

And it's simply because of Jesus.

Then that was something forme that I started to realize

that my contentment doesn'tcome from having arms,

my contentment doesn't comein my life getting better.

My contentment is found inJesus, and in Jesus alone.

That's the only thing that doesn't change,

that's the only thingthat doesn't go away.

He's my hope.In this life and in the next.

So if you're sitting thereright now and thinking,

God my situation's notgonna get any better,

how is there hope in this?

Our hope isn't in this life.

Our hope isn't in pain going away.

Our hope is in Jesus, in his love for us,

in his plan to use us even in our pain,

knowing that one day,when faith becomes sight,

our pain goes away.