Tuesday, May 21, 2024
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out. If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:6-11
Where to Find Real Satisfaction, Contentment, and Fulfillment
We are all pursuing something. We are all worshipping something. Whatever we are pursuing and worshipping is what we value the most. It is what we think about, chase, spend money on, spend time on; it is what consumes us. If what we value most is anything other than Jesus, we are set up for a foundation of a stronghold of idolatry. We wonder how we can end up in a place where we have strayed so far that we have displaced God in our lives and replaced him with an idol, but what we may not realize is that one stronghold may lead to another if we don’t realize it and realign ourselves with God.
Disassociation from the Goodness of God
Like the Israelites we learned about Sunday, we can sometimes find ourselves in a season of waiting and silence. As a result, we can become impatient and confused about where God is, or what he is doing – or not doing. It is normal to wonder about God in the middle of a crisis situation, and for those who are not Christians, they may wonder if he exists at all, or why would he allow them or their loved ones to suffer if he is supposed to be good. Even Christians, who know the goodness of God, can disassociate themselves with his goodness because of the circumstances of our lives. We cannot allow ourselves to believe he is really a good God because of what is happening in our lives. Maybe it is betrayal, or abuse. Whatever it is we cannot reconcile in our hearts that God, who is good, would allow it to happen.
Disassociation from the goodness of God leads us to Dissatisfaction.
As we learned about satisfaction last week, we know that satisfaction can be a stronghold in our lives and dissatisfaction can lead to other issues – discontentment and disproportionate attention and affection, leading to the stronghold of idolatry.
Dissatisfaction can lead us down a slippery slope to Discontentment. Discontentment is a much deeper issue than dissatisfaction. When we are content, we can find peace in Christ no matter what our circumstances are. We are not controlled by our feelings and desires. Contentment brings peace that comes from knowing that God is bigger than any problems and that he works them all out for our good. It isn’t a feeling of well-being contingent on keeping circumstances under control, but it is a joy in spite of circumstances, looking to God who never changes in the midst of shifting circumstances. Contentment comes from our heart. When we are discontent, we start looking for something to make us feel content.
Discontentment leads to Disproportionate Attention and Affection. This causes us to place the attention and affection we should have for Christ and place it somewhere it doesn’t belong. Whatever we place our attention and affection in is what we worship. We find idols ("An image of a deity other than God; any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion; a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance.”) to place our attention and affection in – to worship – to give us the feeling we are looking for. But they cannot give us the feeling we are seeking. They disappoint every time.
Every day we have to decide who or what will be our gods. Where will we place our attention and affection? What will we passionately pursue? Spend our days on? There is nothing on this earth that will give us the fulfillment and joy that pursing Jesus will. The truth is there is nothing that will fulfill our fleshly desires and fulfilling ourselves is not what we should be pursuing. We can end up putting ourselves on the throne of our lives, giving affection and attention to ourselves rather than God. There is no person or thing that is more worthy of our attention and affection than him, and the only worthy pursuit in this life is the pursuit of Jesus and walking The Jesus Way – living in obedience to him. When we do this we will know joy, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment like we have never known before.
