Hi Everyone! I have
just returned from sunny southern California, having attended the Annual
Conference for the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC). The day before I left, we had a lightning
strike that took out several of our electronic devices, including our internet
router and server. That is the reason
nothing was happening last week. We are
still resolving these issues, so blog posts will be up as soon as I find a
secure connection to upload.
I was privileged to speak at the conference last week on the
topic of discontentment. This issue is still fresh on my mind today, and so I
thought I would share with you some of what I have learned about this terrible
sin of the heart. I consider discontentment to be one of those insidious sins.
Like bitterness, it grows under cover of something else making its way deeper
and deeper in a person’s heart. It may masquerade as depression, anxiety, or
anger. In fact, all three of those sins are components of discontentment. Only when the root is uncovered can
repentance and change begin.
One feature of discontentment
is wanting what we don’t have. For
example, single people want a spouse- they are discontent with singleness. Childless
couples want children. I have counseled women whose lives revolve around trying
to get pregnant. Some of them are very upset that they cannot force conception
to occur, or carry a pregnancy to term. They become angry - because God who could
is not changing their situation!
The less fortunate
want the material goods they see that others have. When my sons were younger,
we bought them each a Starter jacket, which at the time was the greatest coat a
kid could have. I recall hearing about
thefts and kids getting beat up because some other kid wanted their jacket. When a person is denied something they want,
they may become bitter toward God because He is not or giving them the “stuff”
they think they need or deserve. What they
do not realize is that in being discontent, they are in many cases coveting
what someone else has. Not only do they want what someone else has, they
would be glad to see the other person lose it, making it equal deprivation.
Coveting is not a
new problem; it was a problem all the way back in Exodus when the Hebrews
complained about the food God miraculously provided for them. God
knew this pattern of discontentment would continue to be problematic for us,
and He included a command found in Exodus 20:17.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house;
you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female
servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.
The discontented
person has made their wants and desires into gods; whether it is having a baby,
getting married, buying a new car, or having the latest version of the iPhone. When
a person covets, he allows the desire for that thing or person to govern his relationship
with other people (and God). The discontented
person tends to minimize their sinful responses of grumbling, complaining,
jealousy, excessive working, and greed that reveal their internal heart
attitudes toward God and His provisions.
This is why
Discontentment is ultimately a worship disorder. People who are discontent with
their material things should be encouraged to examine themselves; are they
attempting to fill God’s domain in the inner man with things? Are they
discontent with what God has given them? Are they overlooking God's
blessings?
When challenged, the
discontent person will admit they forget to be thankful for what they do
have because they want something else-something that fits better into their
idea of Utopia than what God has given them. It is important to realize that if
God does not satisfy you, nothing will.
Pastor John
MacArthur says, “We pursue treasures that really cannot be found, treasures
that never truly satisfy and the harder we pursue them the more complex life
becomes and this is because sin complicates everything. The heart it seems is never satisfied, never
content, at least not to the degree Christians are called to it.”
Contentment starts and ends in the thoughts, beliefs, and desires of the heart,
And how you act on those thoughts, beliefs, and desires.
Contentment
has nothing really to do with your wants, or needs; it
has to do with God supplying that which you truly must have, and trusting and
believing He knows what those things are. Contentment
presses on in spite of unmet wants, needs, and desires. You learn it as you continue to trust God
even in the midst of not having what you desire, and through asking God to change them to be in line with what He wants you to have and to become. You will learn to be content through resisting the temptation to become anxious about all that you think you should have, and lack.
Contentment
comes as you examine your heart, and through self-examination led by the Word of God, you weed out the worldly thoughts, beliefs, and desires that lead you to become
discontent. Contentment
grows through selflessness, and doing the will of God in your life- even at
personal cost to yourself.
Seeking to be content on the heart level involves desiring to honor and glorify God, and embracing what He brings into your life. You will find contentment as you develop heart longings to glorify God, and to know Him in the midst of any given situation.