Week 21, Day 3: Be Content!
Today’s Reading: 2 Timothy 2:1-3:17
Some thoughts from yesterday’s reading…
It is amazing how difficult it is in our country to learn to be content. Perhaps it is because we all strive for the “American Dream” which seems to include gaining more and more stuff. We seem to always want a bigger, better house, or bigger and better car. We want to get more stuff to put into our homes. There is certainly nothing wrong with enjoying the things that God has blessed us with. A study of the book of Ecclesiastes will confirm that God wants us to enjoy the blessings of life. However, we often are not just enjoying the things we have been given, but rather trying to get more. We succumb to covetousness and jealousy often when this is the case!
Paul, as he wrote to Timothy, encouraged him to learn to be content. In 1 Timothy 6:6-11 Paul wrote that godliness with contentment is great gain. How so? We cannot take any of the wealth that we accumulate in this life with us when we die. We came in with nothing, and we certainly will not be taking anything with us when we leave! Notice, in verse 8, Paul tells us that we should be content with food and clothing. How many of us would truly be content with just food and clothing? How many of us would be able to function with only those things? And yet we are instructed to be content with that!
This should also make us take notice of how much God has blessed us with. He has not only blessed us with food and clothing, but with countless other blessings. If you were not blessed beyond those basics, you couldn’t even be reading this article! We need to learn to be content with what God has blessed us with so that we don’t fall into the temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition (1 Timothy 6:9). I know that many think they are immune to these things, but it simply is not the case. If we do not learn to be content, we will be overcome by these problems!
We often hear people say, “Money is the root of all evil.” However, Paul said, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil… (1 Timothy 6:10).” It is the attitude that strives to accumulate money (and the things that can be bought by money) that leads to problems for mankind. That is why contentment is so important. If we are content, we do not have a love for money. We live with what we are blessed with. We work hard to provide for our families, but we know that our spiritual well-being is far more important than becoming rich and/or famous!
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