Godliness with Contentment

"But Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction." 1Timothy 6:6-9

"Whoever loves money never has money enough: whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. " Ecclesiastes 5:10

Oh the things we think will "fill" our ravenous souls appetite. When does the endless cycle, the lust for more ever end? When is the heart fully satisfied? Jeremiah even speaks to how deceptive the heart is above all else (17:9). If I do not intentionally place my hope and trust in Christ (and do it daily... for I've noticed I will quickly default back to natural operation) then I will become like the words of Jeremiah, my heart will soon and all too quickly turn away from the Lord-

"Cursed in the one who trusts in man (or in money, in appearances, in a career, in friends, in myself), who depends on man for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert." (17:5-6)

That resonates with me: "He will not see prosperity when it comes". Without Christ, my souls ravenous pit will always long for more, more, more... all the while blinding eyes to the prosperity and joys before us. Contentment then becomes a choice as to where I am placing my heart. If left to ourselves, we can easily become the very people Solomon is referring to in Ecclesiastes 5:10: We will never be satisfied even with prosperity. There will never be enough income to satisfy our longs lists of wants, enough vacations, enough approval from man, enough things on our social calendar, enough status... there is never enough. Like a child, our natural flesh will always want "one more", especially if that one more is in the hands of someone else.

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
Jeremiah 17:7-8

This is true contentment. One that chooses to place our hope in Christ instead of the temporal and deceptive whims our hearts. The Lord has used my sweet grandfather as a reminder to me of the words of Solomon- that we can spend our whole lives chasing after the wind, and miss out of true contentment and joy all the while. Coming to America from Germany his family had many social and economic hurdles to overcome. He is a hard worker, faithful and diligent at all he does. He worked his whole life to climb the corporate latter, but it became his life. He has provided well for his family and retired well, with plenty enough to outlive his 200th birthday (oh I hope you live that long Lou!). But yet so many times he reminded me of the fact that success and money is not all that our young culture thinks it to be. If our hope is in it, it will leave us disappointed.


Lord today let me choose to set my heart, my hope, my confidence in You. You alone fill all the desires of my longing soul. For you alone fill everything in every way (Ephesians 1:23).