Tuesday, November 10, 2020 Some material is from Learning Contentment by Sam Nobles
Do not love the world or the
things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires
of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the
world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does
the will of God abides forever.
1 John 2:15-17
If we were honest, most of us live in discontentment. It comes much more
naturally to our human nature, so we have to be vigilant to not let it consume
us. We are always trying to make ourselves better and usually we are looking
for the better version of most things in our lives. This can fast become a
prison cell that we find ourselves locked into.
Discontentment
causes me to look horizontally; that is, looking at what others have, leaving
me in a state where I am never satisfied. On the other hand, contentment
invites me to look vertically; that is, at God. When I look in his direction,
regardless of my possessions or lack of or status or lack of, I know that He is
enough – Sam Nobles.
Discontentment
Leads to Poor Choices With Lasting Consequences:
When we start turning to other things besides God to make us happy, we usually
make some poor choices. Many people turn to drugs, alcohol and other sins of
the flesh to make themselves feel better and numb the pain and discontentment
they feel. While these things may bring momentary satisfaction, the long-term
effects can be devastating. Unfortunately, we do not learn until we have pretty
much destroyed our lives – lost our families, drowned ourselves in debt, or end
up with an addiction that ruins us. The very things that we seek to free us
from discontentment, enslave and imprison us with addictions. We just trade one
prison for another.
Looking at the
world around us will make us discontent – what others have that we don’t can
leave us feeling continuously unsatisfied. Instead, if we will look up to God,
we will find contentment, regardless of our possessions, or lack of possessions.
•
All we have belongs to God. If we are
Christians, everything we have is His, and in the grand scheme of things, they
don’t matter. They won’t comfort you when you are sad, save you from hell, and
you won’t be able to take them to heaven. They are not guaranteed to be here tomorrow
either because they are temporary like everything else in this world. Only
eternal things will matter in the end. You
may think they will bring you contentment while you are here – and they may –
but eventually they won’t make you happy anymore.
•
You are not your possessions. God does
not care what your house looks like, what kind of car you drive, what brand of
clothes you have on, or shoes you wear. He cares about your heart, and that is
what He will know you by. Your possessions
do not define you, or at least they shouldn’t. If you are more well known by
your possessions than you are for your love of God and your witnessing for His
glory, then you may want to re-prioritize your life. Beauty fades. If the beautiful
woman is not known by her beautiful heart, she will have nothing when she grows
old and wrinkles and gray hair come. What you have, what you look like, or
where you live all fade away, but the beauty of a soul filled with the Lord will
never fade.
Don’t lock
yourself into the prison of discontentment. Don’t lock yourself into the prison
of stuff either. If we don’t learn to be content with our lives, what we have
and who we are, we will develop contempt for life. Chasing contentment leads to
one prison after another when you don’t find it in the Lord. Stuff leads to the
prison of debt and it is hard to not let that prison define you and fill you
with contempt for yourself and the life you have made by your poor choices. There
is a way out, but it is not easy and the key to this prison is heavy. Look
up, vertically instead of horizontally, and find satisfaction in the Lord.
There is freedom, and true contentment only to be found in Him.
but I will not be enslaved by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12
