BY GREG CRUM
“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” I Timothy 6:6-9
The blessing of feeling full without gorging yourself with high-calorie foods is the dieter’s dream and a key to successful weight loss and management, but being satisfied with the good we have on our plates is also an important strategy to employ if we desire to become wealthy God’s way.
While it is most definitely contrary to most modern ideas of financial success, the grace of contentment is vital to living a life of more than enough. Friends, more isn’t always better, and the grass is rarely greener on the other side, so we must resist the temptation to mortgage our lives away for incrementally better “stuff.”
Last week we began to think about the blessing of contentment, but we started the conversation with some important foundational truths. The first was that poverty isn’t Godly—it’s never a “blessing” from Him, and the second was that He desires us to have “all sufficiency in all things” so we can “abound to every good work.” God wants to provide for His children. He never wants us to do without, but to get to this point in our lives we need to get our hearts and minds tuned into the Lord’s frequency concerning prosperity.
Prosperity…that’s a trigger word for many Christians, preachers in particular. They actively kick against any word that promotes God’s assistance in acquisition of material things. I do understand why. I’ve heard some cringe-worthy slants on the prosperity messages as well. I’ve heard the stories of abuse. I’ve read the headlines.
Here’s the thing, though: I read my Bible as well, and when I read that Bible it’s evident that God’s not opposed to blessing His children with material things. I’ve read where He made Abraham rich. I’ve read that He did the same for Isaac and Jacob. I’ve read of the wealth of Job, David and David’s son Solomon. Joseph didn’t end up poor, neither did Daniel. And who did all that for these men? It was God Himself!
No, we need to get it into our heads that God isn’t opposed to us having more than enough stuff; He’s only opposed to the stuff having us.
That’s where contentment can help. It can temper our appetites so we can live free from the constant pursuit of the next great thing.
Friends, there’s so much wisdom in the Word of God and that wisdom (like the directive to be content) can help us get to a place in this life where we are living in God’s kind of prosperity.
Brothers and sisters, we need to embrace contentment concerning material things. We need to remind ourselves from time to time that this life isn’t about the continual search for more and better things. Sure, God isn’t opposed to us having an abundance, having nice things and enjoying them in this life. But part of living wealthy God’s way is living with discipline and choosing not to have everything that our income would allow us so that instead, we have extra to do more important things in life.
Maybe that means living in a smaller house, driving an older car, or wearing clothes bought on sale. But if all that means we have to “abound to every good work” then that is far better for us and others we can bless. Some people bemoan that they can’t give to missions or other works of the Lord like they wish—well, here’s your solution!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.