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We live in a society that is largely dominated by materialism.\u00a0 A good number of people are so preoccupied with the pursuit of material things that they have little or no time for spiritual things.\u00a0 The Scripture is full of the promises of God\u2019s blessings and material provisions for those who fear Him and keep His commandments.\u00a0 Poverty is the state of being unable to meet the basic needs of life.<\/p>\n
There are two extremes in the attitudes of many Christians towards wealth \u2013 those who think poverty is part of holiness and those who measure their relationship with God by their level of affluence.\u00a0 Both extremes have no scriptural basis.\u00a0 Wealth or money has neither the nature of good or evil.\u00a0 It is our attitude that defines such as good or bad.\u00a0 Mammon is the compulsive spirit behind wealth that creates insatiable appetites on her victims, making them to assume wrongly that more wealth will always bring more satisfaction and more security.<\/p>\n
Contentment however is a Godly virtue that should be learned and practiced by all believers.\u00a0 It is a sign of gratitude to God and an unspoken statement of trust in His ability to provide for us at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n
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Contentment is the state of feeling happy and satisfied with one\u2019s possessions, status or situations.\u00a0 It is a Godly virtue that is necessary for the expression of true godliness.\u00a0 It involves being able to moderate and limit oneself in requirements, desires and actions.\u00a0 By contentment one is able to accommodate himself in his present condition, while patiently believing God for a better future.<\/p>\n
The word of God encourages us to be contented for the simple fact that we brought nothing into this world, and we shall take nothing out of it.\u00a0 This means that we can never be poorer than when we were born into this world, and whatsoever we may now have, we must leave behind too.<\/p>\n
Contentment is not to surrender to fate of life.\u00a0 It is to be satisfied and grateful for what our present efforts has yielded, even while trusting God for more.<\/p>\n
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In trying to acquire material possessions, the Christian should be under the moderating influence of the word of God and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 This is because there are serious temptations and pitfalls on the path to becoming wealthy.\u00a0 Lust, greed and covetousness must be promptly identified and dealt with prayerfully.\u00a0 The desire to please and honor God should be uppermost in our rating scale for every acquisition.\u00a0 The actual motive should not be pride, rivalry or self-centeredness.\u00a0 The need for a possession, and the eventual utility it brings to us, our family and the body of Christ should be prayerfully contemplated.<\/p>\n
The believer must be rest assured in him that it is God that gives power to make wealth.\u00a0 We must therefore put God first in all our endeavors and we must avoid the easy road of fraud and self-manipulation.\u00a0 Material prosperity have taken many away from the faith and salvation in Christ, and brought them into entanglement of evil fraternities and powers of darkness.\u00a0 Godliness is to be preferred before and above material possessions.\u00a0 Life on earth is just a spot compared with eternity.\u00a0 Prosperity of the soul and the associated eternal life can never be compared with any pleasure here on earth.\u00a0 The Christian should be heavenly minded by investing in things with eternal value, such as salvation of souls and funding or provisions for the ministry.<\/p>\n
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The factors that breed discontentment among believers are numerous, and we may not be able to exhaust them but we have the following prominent ones.<\/p>\n
Poverty and want are the major progenitors of discontentment.\u00a0 Inability to meet basic needs to life will definitely generate dissatisfaction.\u00a0 Sometimes the origins of poverty and want in a family are deep-rooted, and may be traceable to failures at the early stage of life.\u00a0 Be that as it may, God is all-sufficient to those who fear Him.<\/p>\n
Pride is another factor that promotes dissatisfaction.\u00a0 A false sense of superiority over others will create restlessness and anxiety.\u00a0 It makes the victim to be in continuous contention to remain superior and relevant.\u00a0 Where there is rivalry and unhealthy competition, contentment will be a stranger, because the actors are in constant state of manipulation to outdo others.\u00a0 Where there is lust and unrefined sense of primitive accumulation, there can\u2019t be contentment.<\/p>\n
Pressure of life, from friends, family members and relations, and some extra tasks we take upon ourselves may bring us to a state where we are never contented with our possessions, status or situations.<\/p>\n
The un-regenerated man thinks there is salvation and security in the abundance of material possessions.\u00a0 He is haunted by yesterday, not satisfied with, and anxiously agitated about tomorrow.\u00a0 There is no contentment in an unsaved life!<\/p>\n
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Lack of contentment results in covetousness.\u00a0 It results in an\u00a0inordinate desire for wealth or position, and immoderate attachment or devotion to the fulfillment of that desire.\u00a0 Covetousness will make us to focus attention on things which are seen, handled and owned.\u00a0 By it we may lose sight of the unseen and eternal wealth.\u00a0 Covetousness is so subtle and deceptive that we may fall prey to it without realizing it.\u00a0 It is destructive because it breeds criticism, envy and withdrawal.\u00a0 It hinders fellowship and retards the work of God and promotes stinginess.\u00a0 It misleads and perverts the\u00a0sense of good judgment, hardens one\u2019s heart and dries up the well of human affection among brethren.\u00a0 It ultimately leads to damnation and death in hell fire.\u00a0 Lack of contentment is a fertile ground to plant the seeds of compromise, crime, immorality and corruption.<\/p>\n
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It must be stated in clear terms that this virtue of contentment should not be interpreted to mean surrender to whatever fate holds in store for us.\u00a0 Contentment is to be satisfied and grateful to God for what our present effort has yielded.\u00a0 Contentment is not to be docile or lacking in imagination and creativity.\u00a0 It is not the folding of hands in piety of poverty.\u00a0 It is not to be a state of suppressed anxiety and not vocalizing our complaints.\u00a0 It is a state where the mind is at rest and at peace with others, with God and with oneself.\u00a0 It is a state of being positive towards the little God has favored us with.\u00a0 It is a state where we see our cup of God\u2019s blessings as half-full instead of half-empty!\u00a0 We must thereafter aspire for greater and better things, depending on God to see us through, and not manipulating our way to what we call success.<\/p>\n
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Solomon, the king, was able to picture the frustration and futility of all man\u2019s toil when he leaves God out.\u00a0 Today, one may spring up in labor and hard work to raise a vast estate of wealth.<\/p>\n
Ponder a little!\u00a0 What has become of the estates of wealthy men of yesterday? What will be the attitude of future generations to all we are trying to accumulate for them?<\/p>\n
There is only on point of contentment in life and that is to recognize God as the source of all good things.\u00a0 We should learn to ask Him and go along with\u00a0His pace.<\/p>\n
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1 Timothy 6:6 \u2013 \u201cBut Godliness with contentment is great gain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Contentment Central Thought: We must not let the things of this world hinder our relationship with God. Text: 1 Timothy 6:6-12; Luke 12:18-20; Deuteronomy 8:18 We live in a society that is largely dominated by materialism.\u00a0 A good number of people are so preoccupied with the pursuit of material […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sundayschool"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}