Once upon a time, there was a man who desired to build his house atop a hill. He had good reasons and had made all the preparations. So, one day, he set out to find the right location. He trekked up the first hill he knew of, thinking it would be the ideal spot, but when he came to the crest, he saw just beyond an even higher hill. Oh, this next hill would be even better for him and his family, and so he trekked on. When he arrived atop the next hill, he saw beyond it a mountain. A mountain would really be something! So, he went on. Every peak he reached revealed a higher summit. Finally, the man arrived at the highest peak of them all. The air was thin, the wind relentless and cold. He could see nothing below the clouds. It was no place to build a home. This man, like many others, began his quest looking for what was good, and then for something better, and ended his search out the best; but he didn’t gain any of it. He did not gain at all because it was never good enough. Every good thing he attained was lost at the sight of something even better. Contrast and comparison ruined him, and many others.
It is very likely that you, dear reader, are living in the wealthiest nation, in the most affluent age, and are possessed of many luxuries the richest of other times and places could not have imagined owning! Yet, that’s not the way it feels. Some real circumstances are slighting us in our enjoyment of our prosperity, and we cannot control them. We can control our attention. That attention is consistently being directed towards what we do not have.
On Christian Contentment & Why God is Enough
We know the command against covetousness; we recall the words of Matthew 6 against worrying; we remember the wisdom of Ecclesiastes; everywhere we find that the Bible has spoken against unchecked desires and the restless pursuit of temporal goods. The dangers, futility, and wrongness of individual greed are no secret.
If we know all of this, why do we still fall into the restless trap of anxiety-ridden rat race to acquire more and more? We need to know — and begin to understand — that we swim in the waters of disconnection. The economy is said to run on the engine of consumption, meaning marketing departments everywhere are bent on convincing you that you need something else.
Those advertisements play into the human condition. We all have an innate feeling that we do need something else. We need a purpose to live for, a relationship to complete us, and a place to belong. We all have a huge hole at the core of our beings, and we try to fill it with anything and everything to no avail.
You know where I am going with this: only God can fill the hole and make us whole. God gives us a purpose, a relationship, and a place. As we seek these things from God and for God, all the other necessities are provided as promised in Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
The reason we struggle to hold that rare jewel of Christian contentment is that we are so often distracted by other worthless baubles. Even our church services spend more time on how to get less good than on expounding the awesomeness of God. The topics of Christian living are important; Paul spends about half his letters on them, but it is always the second half.
The answer to the pressing questions of life is not found in practical action steps you take, but in knowing God. That sacred knowledge informs, directs, and motivates such actions as will be successful.
On the other hand, if we undertake even the most pious actions to obtain some other good than God, that lesser good has become our god. That voids the promises of God and withdraws the hand of blessing. This is a loving action of a concerned father who sees his son chasing after the wind, and ignoring the sufficient provision, and more than sufficient provision, He has already made.
If we pursue good without submitting to God as our hope, our Father in Heaven will also discipline us to bring us back to Himself. Now, we may enjoy some fleeting prosperity in our wanderings, but it is not from God’s hand.
So, we see that the beginning of contentment is seeking God by the grace of God. There is no end to seeking God. He is endless, inexhaustible. We will never have all of God, not even in future eternity. We will always have enough of God, and I believe enough from God. God is enough. In this simple truth, we find rest amidst a restless world, content among a discontent people. We are set apart as we can truly say it is enough.
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