“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.””
(Heb 13:5NIV)
How did one who was once a beloved angel of God become Satan? One of the reasons was that he allowed discontentment in his heart. He was not satisfied with the place God put him in life as a guardian cherub. He wanted the very throne of His maker. And that was the beginning of his end (Cf. Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-19)
Now, if we too do not want to fall from that place where we can continually enjoy the grace of God for us, we must not allow discontentment in our hearts. God, as we see in our opening text, has already promised never to leave or forsake us. That means regardless of where we are in life at the moment, He will be with us to make sure we have all that we need to be where we are supposed to be and live a life of meaning and enjoyment.
See, one of the reasons many are discontented in life is they cannot see God in their affairs. They think they are all alone in life and so whatever they do not do for themselves or get for themselves will never be gotten. So, they are driving themselves hard to advance themselves and make themselves happy. But what they do not know is that a man can only receive what God has given (John 3:27). Anyone who takes what God has not given will someday find that what they have taken is never what they wanted.
Another reason many people are discontented is that they think positions, things and people satisfy. For example, look at the rate at which people all around the world are now working on their body parts. I mean that people are now undergoing all kinds of surgeries and using all kinds of medicines to reshape or totally alter their faces, breasts, buttocks and other private parts. But why are they doing these things? Discontentment! And why do some even want to change their sex or spouse? Discontentment!
All these people think that by making their body parts look different or by changing their sex or by having another love partner life is going to be better or more enjoyable for them. But they are wrong, for the bible tells us that there is nothing a man can do for himself or by himself to find satisfaction in life. That is because satisfaction in life is a gift from God, and without Him nobody can eat, drink or find enjoyment. (Cf. Ecc 2:24-25)
Now this is being illustrated to be true every day, as we look at the lives of those who have moved from one marriage to another marriage or from one job to another job or from one sex to another sex. It is equally being illustrated to be true in the lives of those who are amassing wealth and worldly goods for themselves day by day. How many of them have found the contentment they are seeking through the change they orchestrated for themselves? And how many of those who are adding cars to cars, houses to houses and companies to companies are really enjoying their lives with all these additions?
You too can check your life for the reality of this by considering the results of certain changes or additions, small or great, you made for yourself. How many of such changes or additions actually resulted in a better enjoyment of life for you? Not long ago, I told myself that I wanted a different body cream, something not greasy. And I did get one, a more expensive one than the one I was using. But looking back now, I cannot see how it has made life better for me or made my body more useful. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that the changes we make in our lives, even though little, cannot change our experiences in life in very remarkable ways. They can. But even when the changes we are making in our lives are necessary and righteous, without God making them count for something in our lives, they will be nothing but a waste of time, energy, resources, skills or devotion.
All of this is why we must learn to be content in life. And being content in life does not mean being satisfied with just anything and not making any effort to have more or live better. Rather, it means being thankful to God for what we are and have, knowing that He can make us have more and live better and knowing also that He is able to show us how to take what He has given us (our time, our body, our skills, our relationships, our resources and so forth) and enjoy our lives with them. So, be content with you have and don’t seek to take for yourself what God has not given you. Otherwise someday, when you have fallen from grace, you would wish you never did.
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By: J.O. Lawal | Date: November 18, 2020 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 3, No. 27