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.” I Timothy 6:6-8
So, if you’ve been around me much and had the opportunity to hear me minister on the subject of material wealth, you know I most definitely believe that God desires to provide for the material needs of His children. Where do I get the foundation for my beliefs along these lines? Verses like Psalm 84:11 where the Word says that “… no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,” and Luke 12:32 where Jesus is recorded as saying that “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Additionally, as I’ve read through my Bible, I’ve seen how God made men very wealthy, even in material things, as they walked with Him and were obedient to His plan for their lives.
Read back through the Old Testament and you can’t deny that it was God that made Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, and Solomon rich. Think about that for a minute. If, as some around here suppose, God was opposed to people having material things in abundance, He wouldn’t have done this once, let alone time and time again!
Friends, it may sound odd to our religious ears, but God can, God will, and I’ll go so far as to say God desires to give us anything (beneficial to us) that money can buy. With that said, there is an even greater blessing God desires to bestow on all His children, all the time, in relation to material things. God can, God will, and God desires to give us the thing money can’t buy! What thing is that? Happiness? Love? Salvation? Well, sure, but that’s not what I’m talking about in this instance. No, I’m talking about something that, oddly enough, for most, the more money they have, the less they can possess this thing. I’m speaking of contentment!
Brothers and sisters, true, godly contentment is a gift from God that allows us to actually enjoy what He has given us (whether much or little). It’s the ability to be full, to be satisfied, and to push away from the table with a smile on our faces. There are people in this world who have billions but can’t enjoy it. They aren’t satisfied with the possessions and power that their massive wealth provides. Unimaginably to the common man or woman, it’s like they have nothing from their perspective. Here’s the thing though: we can fall into this same trap no matter the resources we possess, and what’s the use of having anything beyond the bare necessities if we can’t enjoy them?!
Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 illustrates the blessing of contentment perfectly and verse 12 is indicative of the theme of the whole passage when it states, “The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.” How much more blessed could we be than to be satisfied and thoroughly enjoy what we have from the Lord? Sure, we need a certain amount of material things to have a decent quality of life, but more than any single resource, we need the blessing of contentment with those material things if we are ever going to enjoy them the way God has designed.
Fellow believers, let’s strive to be “content with such things as (we) have” (Hebrews 13:5). Does that mean we just have to “tough it” and be okay with a meager quality of life? No, of course not! Contentment isn’t consignment to poverty or an excuse for laziness in life. It is the ability to feel full and thankful for what we have, no matter the current quantity. It’s the ability to refuse to pine away and let ourselves be miserable because we don’t have this or that material thing. It’s the ability to resist being pressured to acquire material things at the detriment of our future and our walk with God. How true it is that godliness with contentment is great gain!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.