By Chris WittsFriday 27 Sep 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
Now the story is told of the farmer who lived his whole life on the same farm. It was a great farm. But with the passing years, the farmer began to get tired of his possessions and surroundings, and he longed for something better. And every day he found a new reason to criticise the old place. So he wanted to sell out. And so he listed the farm with a real estate agent, and the agent prepared a newspaper ad with all the great things about the location, the equipment, the livestock and the acres of fertile ground. And when the farmer read the ad, he was sort of puzzled and very silent for quite a while. Then he said, hold everything. I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to sell, he said. I’ve been looking for a place like that all my life.
Now you might have heard that story and had a bit of a smile about it. But contentment’s an interesting word. He really wasn’t content until it suddenly came up to him in a fresh way. What a wonderful farm he had.
How do we come to true contentment?
So are you discontent with the surroundings where you live? One of the greatest challenges in life is to be content with what you have. I think it’s a great subject this. It seems more and more people are sinking deeper into debt to accumulate more things in life that really don’t provide lasting fulfilment or happiness. And really, what’s the point of that?
Well, we want to accumulate things and regard them as treasure. I guess that’s part of human nature. We think that if we have more material possessions, perhaps more money, that we’ll be more secure. But the Bible asks a very troubling question. Do I look to myself in the things that I can accumulate as security, or do I stand on the promises of God?
And the promises of God tell me that God will look after me and provide for my needs. Because Jesus told his disciples, he said, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or drink or about your body. What you’ll wear, he said. Isn’t life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Who of you, by worrying can add a single hour to his life. But seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. They’re wonderful words. That’s in Matthew 6. You can read it.
The Bible also says that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And when our heart has been touched by God and His love, we become more realistic about the things in life. They don’t become really as important, perhaps as they used to be.
Things can easily be replaced in our society, so we sort of assume that everything and everyone is expendable unless they meet our needs.
So before you decide to sell the farm as it were, stop and take an inventory. Because Paul the Apostle Paul he knew about contentment. He said, I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned, he said, the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether I’m well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty. That I can do everything through Jesus Christ, who gives me the strength – that’s Philippians 4:12-13.
So Paul had learned to be content because of his relationship with Jesus.
So when we become a Christian, when we find our life in Jesus, the values that we have change, we start noticing, for example, the little things that we took for granted. Perhaps, and we have that attitude of gratitude. We can be grateful for so much.
If you’re a content person, you will lead your life with a sense of compassion because you see well God’s going to provide for my daily needs. Therefore, I can do something for others. So everything that we have, every good thing, that is really a gift from God. And if we’ve got that, we really do need to share it with other people.
So I think it’s important to really treasure the things of God rather than trying to hoard up things here on Earth. And if we get a life in Christ, if we believe in Jesus Christ, we will receive more than we could ever imagine. And you talk to people who’ve been on the Christian life for a long time, and they’ll tell you exactly that God has been blessing them and been with them all the years – and that’s really the secret of contentment.
Let’s Pray
Well, eternal God. We’re grateful today for our families and especially for the family of God, because Lord Your grace allows us to live lives of our own choosing. And yet we know, Lord, that we can be content because we belong to you and the family of God. So help us to be content. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.