But godliness with contentment is great gain
1 Timothy 6:6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
How happy ar
e you with your current lot in life?
That is a difficult thing to accomplish, isn’t it? When we see what other people have in life or where they get to go on vacation or how often they get to go out for dinner, it is very tempting to be jealous and not be content with what we have or where we are in life.
It is very intriguing to see what God led Paul to couple together with contentment in our Bible verse for this week – godliness, that is Godly living – living our life in line with God’s Word. But when you stop and think about it, those two ideas do go hand in hand.
When we are not happy or content with what we have or don’t have in life, it certainly does have an effect on other parts of our life. We get jealous or envious when we see others living at a higher standard than we do. When we get jealous or envious, we might be tempted to speak ill of a person because of what they have and we don’t. How often hasn’t a person who isn’t content with what they have been led to steal or cheat to get things they don’t have and would like to have? Sometimes people get so consumed with chasing after things which others have and they don’t that those “things” become their god. There have even been news stories of people who killed other people to get something that person had which they wanted.
Take a look through that last paragraph again. We didn’t cover them all, but we covered most of the commandments. Those examples show us how easily not being content can lead to other sins and all of the sudden our godliness or our walk with God is severely compromised.
The last 4 paragraphs have shown us that Paul was not at all exaggerating when he wrote “godliness with contentment is great gain”. Find a person who is happy and content and you will likely find a person who is having an easier time living their walk with God. This does not mean that if we are content we will be perfect or near perfect, but it sure helps us avoid the temptation of falling into other sins.
Lord Jesus, forgive me for the times that I have not been content with what you have given me in life.
Help me to remember that with you as my Savior I have all I need in heaven with you.
Lead me to be content with what I have and also with what I don’t have,
knowing that you will give me everything I truly need for this life.
I pray this in the name of Jesus who gave his life so that I might have heaven. Amen.