Q: What is real contentment?
A: An inner poise, a deep seated joy that can handle anything life throws at you.
It’s not detachment or resignation. It’s not a personality trait. It’s not rooted in your circumstances.
Paul had to learn to be content. (See Philippians 4: 10-23) So do you. It’s a life-long lesson, which is not learned overnight. (How wonderful because I’m a failure at it.)
Can your contentment deal with the highs and lows of life? Both the failures and the successes? (My kind takes me on a roller coaster ride every time.)
You try to change your circumstances or fix yourself believing that will make you content. (A better spouse, a modern kitchen, a new body, flashier clothes, whiter teeth.)
Ask yourself next time you are unhappy: who or what has seized the title to your heart? Mark that as an idol and smash it.
Here’s what true about idols: Idols can’t deliver. They lie. They trap and enslave you. Idols don’t handle the weight of life.
Who is your God? Who are you trusting?
Only Jesus Christ delivers what he promises. He gives you the meaning to the details of your life, even your suffering.
Q: What are the marks of contentment?
A: Gratitude to God for rescuing you from sin and death and giving you new life in his Son, and generosity toward your neighbor.
Contentment is found only in the gospel.
Messy Christians 
In a free society as ours, it is our privilege to go, come and become whomever we please. This is a great, great blessing and also a huge responsibility. It is easy to be consumed with desires since so many are attainable. We also feel it’s our right to pursue them — even our Constitution declares it. Only God can teach us the wisdom of contentment which is honed in our hearts only after years of experiencing hills and valleys, much tribulation and loss and discovering through it all how faithful, true and trustworthy He is. Contentment is a fruit of the spirit and it matures only after many trials. Philipians 3:8
How right you are. We are so saturated in these Western ideas that we can’t see outside of them. The biblical mindset is so different from our own, and therefore feels so contrary, that it takes a hammering from trials and experience to bring us in line to a better way of living.