Be Still and Know - "Be Satisfied With What You Have"

(from www.premierchristianradio.com)

1. Hebrews 13.5 NLT
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
   
   
   As a little boy it was a fantastic moment when I had enough money to buy a Mars Bar. I therefore assumed that the perfect world must be the one in which you could buy lots of Mars Bars. My mind then focused on a friend of ours who clearly had a lot of money and I worked out that he would be able to buy a Mars Bar every hour, and I thought that must be the very best life that could be imagined. Young as I was I had fallen for the materialist lie, that the objective of life is always to acquire more and more. But that is nothing other than a lie, because the way to peace and true contentment in life is to be satisfied with what you have. The advertising industry does everything it can to persuade us that that is not the case, and we need to be strong and resolute to stand up against the continual flood of images and words which encourage us to want more and more of everything.
   
   
   Our verse today gives us a very powerful reason for being content with what we have. It’s because, unlike money, God
   will never let us down. There is nothing inherently wrong with money. It is part of God’s creation and we should be grateful for any of it that comes our way.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   But money has many shortcomings. It comes and goes depending on our needs and spending habits and is vulnerable
   to changes in the economy. It can easily be stolen or lost through unforeseen expenses. In short, money needs to be respected and looked after but should never be loved. It is the love of money that is at the root of all evil, and we should beware of ever being enticed into such a loving relationship. It will only ever damage us and the people around us.
   
   
   In Philippians the apostle Paul declared that he had learnt to be content with whatever he had. “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learnt the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little” (Philippians 4.12) Surely that kind of contentment is something that we should all desire and work hard to achieve.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Question: Are you content in life at the moment? If not, what do you need to do to move towards a life of contentment.
   
   
   Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you promise never to leave us or abandon us. Help me to find my peace in you today. Amen