Contentment on Gospel-Steroids
“A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot” Prov. 14:30. “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” Heb.13:5. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” 1 Tim. 6:6.
Heavenly Father, this tapestry of Scriptures is both convicting and consoling. It’s convicting, because I can be envious of anyone, and covetous of anything within sight, smell, sound, or thought. I can get jealous of people who have less hassles and more resources. Friends who can eat 6 Cinnabon’s and lose weight. Extroverts who are completely at ease in every setting. Men who can fix anything broken in houses, cars, and everywhere else. I’m a mess, but your mercy is greater still… thankfully.
But as convicting as these verses are, Father, they are even more consoling. Because, through the Gospel, I have come to believe that all I really need is Jesus, plus what you choose to give me, Father. If I owned everything I envy and covet, my “bones would rot,” because I’d envy more and finish life very poorly. Because ingratitude is soul cancer and hoarding is heart-disease. Comparison is relationship homicide and selfishness is… well, it’s the most basic contradiction of the Gospel. Acquisition-dreaming is soul depletion and driven-ness is a recipe for whole-life collapse.
So, Father, I don’t just pray for contentment in Jesus, but for utter, overflowing satisfaction—the felicity and fullness that come from knowing Jesus, and being known and loved by him. Thank you for putting a Jesus-shaped vacuum in each of us that only Jesus can fill. Fill it “till we want no more.” So Very Amen.