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True
Contentment?
We continue meditating on the first of God's four purposes for
money - to provide our basic needs.
We saw yesterday that God longs for us to be dependent on Him.
This is not because God is possessive, but because He knows that
we experience our greatest happiness and freedom when we rely on
Him alone.
When we fail to recognize our need for God, we tend to lose our
love for God. And the more we lose our love for God, the more we
come to depend upon ourselves.
Permit me to remind you again of the text we looked at yesterday:
"If we have food and clothing, we will be content"
(1Tim.6:8).
Contentment is the satisfaction we get from knowing there will be
provision for our basic needs. We begin to lose our contentment
when we compare what we have with what others have - and then
before long expectations dominate our focus.
To the degree that our expectations increase, contentment
diminishes. One of the great advantages of being content with
basics is that it equips us to resist the alluring advertising
which seeks to convince us that we are able really to enjoy life
unless we buy some new commodity.
A contented person feels wealthy because he knows that what he
already possesses is all he needs for daily living.
A veteran missionary, meeting some new recruits to the mission
field, surprised them by saying: "The first thing I would
like you to do is to make a list of all the things you think you
need - then I will spend some time with you showing you how to do
without them."
Prayer:
O my Father, I see that material things can be a good servant
but a bad master. Deliver me from the bondage of the material and
help me to become a truly contented person. I ask this in Jesus'
Name. Amen.
Further study:
Phil.4:1-11; Prov.15:16; Heb.13:5
1. What was Paul's testimony?
2. How should we live?
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