Living A Life Of Contentment

"I wish I had a truck like that!"

"Wouldn't it be great if I had a little more money each month?  What I would be able to do then!"

"I just want to be doing something I love doing in life."

How many times a day do we wish we were doing something else or wish that something was different in life?

Lately I've been finding myself wishing something other than what is reality...and it's effecting my attitude, my actions, and my walk with Christ.

Now, some things aren't bad to wish that they were different...

It's not necessarily a bad thing to want to get out of debt, or to loose some extra pounds, or to find joy in your current situation; but when our discontentment with our current situation moves into coveting, it's now a whole new issue...a sin issue.

So what's the difference between coveting and simply wishing things were different?

Well, one might say that it first starts with how we are viewing our situation...whatever situation that might be.  Are we wanting things to be different because we don't like how things are now, or do we want things different because they simply need to change for things to be right?

The first has more to do with coveting something else and the latter has more to do with wanting what's good in life...wanting what God created me to be and do and be about.

But does that mean that one is right and one is wrong?  Well, maybe not...

As I look at my life, I find myself wanting that nicer vehicle across the street, or that better paying job that so-and-so has...these are coveting.  I'm trying to tell God that what He's given me is not good enough...that He could do better...that He should do better.

When we start to look at it that way, we start to see the sin issue in that.  Deuteronomy 5 (10 Commandments) is clear about coveting something that is not our's.

But other parts of my life I find myself wanting to do something greater than what I am doing now.  I find myself wanting to do things that I know I was created to do and be.

This is where things get sticky;  On one hand, it pushes me to be the man that God created me to be.  On the other hand, it keeps me from being used by God in the here-and-now.

So how do we live a life that is honoring to God in the here-and-now that He has placed us in, but yet work to move forward in the life that He is creating for us to live?

The end of Matthew 6 tells us that our Heavenly Father already knows what we need.  He knows the end game...He knows how to get us there.  Our job in it all is to live a life seeking after God's Kingdom and His Righteousness.

As God has brought all of this to light in my life, I've seen that the coveting and discontentment has become prevalent in my life because I've fixed my eyes on the wrong things.  I have to get my eyes off the things of this world and back on seeking after God's Kingdom and His Righteousness.  Not so that "all of these things will be added to me" but simply because it is what God has commanded of me.

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