”But it is great profit - the good-worship - with contentment.”
-Contentment. That place of being satisfied within yourself. I have enough. No more for me, thank you very much. I’m good. I have plenty. Good and plenty. I have all I need. I have received everything in full and have an abundance - I am amply supplied (Philippians 4.8). Paul wrote that from a Roman jail cell. Well, it was probably house arrest - but he was in chains (2Timothy 1.16)! If anyone had reason to complain about not having enough, not having all their needs and wants fully supplied, it could have been Paul. So here he is, a prisoner, what he wants is out of the question, and he is talking up contentment.
-Think about it for a second - being in the place where you can say no. Not straining to do so out of some form of ascetic denial, but rather from being at this place where you simply don’t want it because you truly have enough already. I’m good. No, I really am good, good to go. I’ve had enough. Probably more than enough. Because usually discontent is bred in the petri dish of excess (and ingratitude). I want more - not because I need more, but because my wants are craving more.
-But this is precisely the point - for most of us in the affluent west, getting to the place of contentment is about my wants, about reining them in and bringing them under control. Contentment. Satisfaction. The secret to finding satisfaction in life is learning to live at the level of what you actually need, and not overly indulging the wants, which are really the cravings of my flesh. Sure, God gives us all good things to enjoy, and is glad for us to enjoy His good gifts with a thankful heart. There is nothing at all wrong with that. But what we see so often in the affluent west, where we have the ability to go after so much more than we need - what we see is wants gone wild. Out of control. Excess out the wazoo. To the point where wants actually become redefined as needs. But this is the infinite abyss, a hole in my heart which is never satisfied, like Sheol itself, never full, always looking for more (Proverbs 27.20). This is the haughty, spiritually proud man who casts God out of mind but then is left to try and fill the God-shaped hole in his heart with something else. That something else is often alcohol (cf Habakkuk 2.5), but we then see that he will try and fill that hole with anything and everything the world may offer. Never satisfied.
-Learning to let the Lord fill that hole in my heart is the key both to contentment AND to a life of good worship. I have Jesus, and I’m good. He is all I need. It is Mary, sitting at the feet of her Savior, focused on Him, enjoying Him - she had found the good part (Luke 10.42). The Good Stuff! Only one thing is really necessary, and I can get along splendidly, just fine, as long as I have Jesus. When He is filling my grand-canyon-of-a-heart hole, it is easier by far to be able to assess life in terms of what I really need. When my spirit is topped off, then I am able to be kept at the place of saying no to the excess. I’m good. I don’t need that. I may indulge and enjoy it (gratefully!) from time to time, but I don’t have to have it. And thus I enter in to this place of great wealth, true wealth, not mammon but soul wealth, this place where I am fully full and not needing anything else. John Rockefeller when asked how much money was enough, famously replied, “one dollar more.” Thus it is with those who have yet to learn the secret of contentment. They are never satisfied. They are never filled up, never enough, never good to go. They are always desperate for more - because their gaping heart hole is never full. They could have all the money in the world, yet still want for more, because that yawning chasm in their heart is God-shaped and cannot be filled by all the riches in the universe or any created thing. Only by God Himself. Paul had learned the secret (Philippians 4.12) - it was Christ! He could do and go through all things as long as He had Christ (Philippians 4.13), Who fully supplied all his needs (Philippians 4.19). Paul was fully supplied, at all times, whatever his circumstances, whether in good-n-plenty or not, as long as he had Jesus. May we each learn that same secret...!
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