Your phone needs updated, your clothes are out of style, your technology is outdated, your house is getting too small … Before you know it, you’re buying into the next trend, latest model, and best bargain. It’s easy to do.
This sinful world system insists: what we have is not enough. We need more to be happy, healthy, and successful—a tempting pitch, but terribly misaligned with God’s Word. He demands a higher standard and promises a greater reward.
“Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”
– 1 Timothy 6:6-8
“Those who desire to be rich,” though, fall into temptation’s snare, following “senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction … Love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (9-10).
Instead of purchasing our way into the prison of discontentment, filling our storehouses with empty pursuits, God asks us to trust Him.
“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”
– 17-19
“Less” is more. In fact, we have all we could possibly need to live and serve Him!
God’s Provision:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.”
– 2 Peter 1:3
We must heed Hebrews 13:5: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
… even finding contentment in “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (2 Corinthians 12:10), because God’s power is perfected in human weakness (9).
The apostle Paul writes for us to consider his experiences:
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”
– Philippians 4:11-12
Word of the Week: Dependence. On God, not ourselves, who provides spiritual riches, even if earthly ones never come.
Proverbs 22 proves true.
“The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the Maker of them all … The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.”
– 2, 4
Abby
