“Godliness with Contentment is Great Gain”

1 Timothy 6:6

 

 

 

It was a humbling thirty days!  Some years ago, God was teaching me the power of contentment, and He challenged me not to purchase ANYTHING for myself for an entire month.  Now, I know what you’re thinking...Something like, “I haven’t bought anything for myself in years!”

 

But, He meant NOT ONE THING!  Those were the days of wearing my hair in a clasp.  One day, my only clasp decided to break.  I was on my way to Walmart when I heard Him say, “I said, NOT ONE THING!”

 

That same month just happened to be the month I was invited to sing with our church choir at Regional Camp Meeting.  I had lost about twenty pounds and was in desperate need of a new black dress.  I reasoned that since I was singing at a Christian function then surely God wanted me to have a new dress.  I mean, after all, I must look my best as I represent Christ? Right?  That still small voice echoed once more, “NOT ONE THING.”

 

My attempt was obstructed as I drove into the gas station parking lot to purchase gum and mints...Yep, you guessed it.  I heard, “NOT ONE THING” once again.

 

This may sound like an amusing story to you, but it was certainly sacrificial learning the concept of contentment. The flesh wants and then wants for more!

 

So often, we estimate the value of our lives according to the number of items we possess and we set out on an endless pursuit of trying to satisfy our true heart’s desires with meaningless materialistic “things”.  Somehow, I would have felt better about myself had I been able to purchase the new dress for Camp Meeting.  Perhaps then, I would have appeared more “put together” to others.  However, God wanted me to understand that my true value and joy in life would be found in Him and not in my appearance or the items I possess or the stature He ever allowed me to stand in.

 

 

Our mindset is often that we will possess true contentment as soon as we get ----. (You fill in the blank)  The truth is that it takes just as much control to be content in plenty as it does in lack because

 

Contentment is a Mindset  

 

There is something powerful about being satisfied in your current state.  Even now, I can say, I have lived in a camper and I have lived in my dream home. I have been in want and I have been in plenty.  I have been surrounded by friends and I have walked many roads alone.  I have been the focus of attention and also the forgotten one.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, and because of this powerful principle, life is stable and steady.

 

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

 

Contentment does not mean that we never set goals for our lives or that we never dream a bigger dream. It is simply the power of quiet confidence and trust on display to the world, screaming “I refuse to be defined by anything other than my wholeness found in Christ.”

 

“Be content in what you have; Rejoice in the way things are.

When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

 

Lao Tzu