Be Content
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“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.’ – Hebrews 13:5[/perfectpullquote]If you had to take a guess as to how many songs there are about money, what would it be? A quick Google search shows at least 110 songs about money, and I’m sure that there are quite a few more. People are obsessed with money. Why? Because we need money to buy things like food, clothes, shelter, as well as well as pay bills for school, electricity and taxes. With so many things to spend our money on, it seems like it takes years to save but only minutes to spend it all. You don’t have to look too hard to find “get rich quick” schemes – they’re everywhere! With this obsession with money coming at us from every side, how do we keep our life “free from the love of money”? The answer is more difficult than it sounds. The author of Hebrews says to “be content with what you have.”
Years ago when we had cable and I would sit and watch commercials, it was amazing how discontent I would be with my cell phone. It worked well and I could make phone calls, but this new phone that I saw came with a keyboard that would allow me to text easier and quicker. I would think, “I need that!” I would upgrade and later I would see another commercial with a cell phone that could record videos and download apps to play games. I would again think, “I need that!” Later, a commercial would show a cell phone that could take pictures better than my current phone as well as have GPS, a faster processor, more memory, etc. I would again think, “I need that!” It was a vicious cycle where I would “need” a new phone every year or 2 even though my current phone worked perfectly for what it was intended to do – to make phone calls! Since then, we no longer have cable and I rarely see commercials and my previous phone was over 4 years old before I decided to upgrade. Did I really need all of those phones? No. I would become discontent with what I had and would justify my desire and turn it into a need. Like the Preacher says in Ecclesiastes 5:10 – “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.”
So, besides disconnecting with everything in this world, what can we do to remain content withwhat we have? The answer is in our verse: God is with us and will never leave us. God is really all we ever need. Because He is with us, we can be sure that He will always provide for us. It never ceases to amaze me that whenever my wife and I have been strapped for cash and we didn’t know how we were going to pay our bills, God would provide in a way that only He could. Stressing about finances is easy. Trusting God to provide can be hard. But if we believe that what He says in His Word is true, then we can know that He will be with us in any and every situation. Stop looking at what you don’t have and start rejoicing in what you do have.
– Pastor David Guenin
