Satan tricks us to seek what we don’t have instead of what God has already given us. This lack of contentment hurts people, from Adam and Eve’s rebellion with the Tree of Knowledge, to Cain’s murdering his brother Abel due to coveting the praise Abel received. Satan takes our eyes off what we have, like Adam and Eve having all the other trees to eat from. Then Satan directs our eyes to the things we do not have. Satan uses this trick over and over, but we humans often fall for the ploy. So let’s learn to avoid this dangerous trap of Satan.
Coveting, as the opposite of contentment, causes us to forget how much we have and instead want what God did not give us. People who covet get hurt over and over, and often they harm others too. Adam and Eve did this when they coveted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis chapter 3.) When they lost their contentment with what they already had, they took that fruit, ate of it, and cursed all of man kind. But they are only a few of the many people lacking contentment in the Bible. The tenth commandment (Exodus chapter 20, & Deuteronomy chapter 5) commands us to not covet. To make sure people understood the dangers, God added this detail in Deuteronomy 7: 25, “The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the gold or the silver that is in them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord.” God let the Israelites know they would be ensnared by anything they coveted. Today we would call that an addiction or strong hold.
God does not bully us when he tells us to not covet. He knows the danger coveting causes. In Joshua, chapter 7, Achan coveted valuables he saw in Jericho, and when he took them, he cursed the entire nation of Israel. Thirty-six men died in battle, simply because of Achan’s sin. Than Achan and all of his children died, as a punishment for this one theft of coveting. In the second book of Samuel, chapter eleven, King David coveted the wife of Uriah, one his valiant soldiers. David forcibly took her to have sex, and then later had her husband killed. David killed a man more noble than himself over the lust of the flesh. He had many beautiful wives, while Uriah had only one. But David was not content with his many women. He believed he should have this man’s only wife. Instead of feeling rich with contentment, David gave in to coveting, and innocent Uriah died, along with the illegitimate child who came from that adultery.
If coveting comes so easily, does contentment come easily too? No. The Apostle Paul said that he had to learn to be content: Philippians 4:11a-13, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Sadly, we can easily fall back into coveting and forget to give thanks if we do not practice being thankful. We may even excuse this behavior by saying it feels so natural to covet, to want more than we have. Our society praises people who covet. Ads tell us we need more and more. Society praises those who covet and work over-time to get more and more. So when we forget to be content and thankful, but instead covet, we receive the world’s praise.
But we have to remember the world’s praise leads to death, Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to man, but it leads to death.” Also look at James 1:15, “Then desire, when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is fully grown gives birth to death.” So we must practice contentment to overcome our fleshly desire to covet.
We can practice, the way Paul did, by learning to react to our life with contentment instead of coveting. Giving thanks enriches our contentment. When we give thanks for what we already have, we can begin to savor those things and circumstances God gives us. Giving thanks, directly to God, changes our heart, because we let the Holy Spirit work in us. Romans 2:8 confirms this, “And it is a changed heart that is produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks the praise of God and not of men.” We seek God’s praise as we thank him, not the world’s praise for those who strive and covet more.
Some people claim that they would express thanks, if they had more possessions. But true contentment comes from the heart itself, surrendered to God. Even poor people can find contentment. Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned for doing nothing wrong, yet instead of coveting freedom, they rejoiced, simply because they loved God. We see this in the book of Acts, chapter 16. Paul and Silas’s contentment and strong faith lead the jailer to the Lord. We must recognize this truth. Contentment helps and heals people, even while coveting harms and kills people.
We have the power, through our thankfulness, to help others. We might miss this amazing fact. We are so much more powerful than we could imagine. People watch our lives. Even in the grocery store or at work, we have people watching us, because we are Christians. When they see us choosing to give thanks, even in difficult circumstances, even when we have less than them, they wonder why. When they ask us why we are content, we can tell them about Jesus! Our contentment enriches our own life, and it has the power to help others too, especially if they surrender their life to Jesus the way the jailer did with Paul in the Philippian jail.
The more we give thanks, the more we feel we already have. Of course this does not mean we stop growing, working and achieving. But now we do those things from a calm heart that does not need any of those achievements. We have the freedom to work for those goals without placing our faith in them. Our faith rests in the Lord, and we can trust him to provide as much or as little as he wishes to give us. The key to this success comes from our thankful heart. We find joy in what we already have. This deep thankfulness is foreign to the wicked. Look at Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” God sees those who will not give thanks as evil. And when he sees us not coveting any rewards for our kindness to people like that, he will repay us. Even if we wait for that prize in heaven, we will receive rewards for our thankful attitude and kindness to others.
So if we begin to feel we are lacking, we need to thank God for every single thing we can think of. The more we thank him, the richer we will feel. And if we have trouble thinking of things to thank him for, we can remember people who have far less than us and thank God for what we have in comparison. 1 Tim. 6:6 says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain,” and the New Living Translation describes “great gain,” as “great wealth.” When we love Jesus most of all, he gives us what we need. Best of all, he fills our hearts with joy.
Thanks for joining us in this post today. I pray we have encouraged you to feel blessed with all you already have.