Week 43: The Forgotten Virtue

This week's Bible reading plan is as follows:

• Sunday: Jeremiah 37:1-38:28; 1 Timothy 6:1-21; Psalm 89:38-52; Proverbs 25:28
• Monday: Jeremiah 39:1-41:18; 2 Timothy 1:1-18; Psalm 90:1-91:16; Proverbs 26:1-2 
• Tuesday: Jeremiah 42:1-44:23; 2 Timothy 2:1-21; Psalm 92:1-93:5; Proverbs 26:3-5 
• Wednesday: Jeremiah 44:24-47:7; 2 Timothy 2:22-3:17; Psalm 94:1-23; Proverbs 26:6-8 
• Thursday: Jeremiah 48:1-49:22; 2 Timothy 4:1-22; Psalm 95:1-96:13; Proverbs 26:9-12
• Friday: Jeremiah 49:23-50:46; Titus 1:1-16; Psalm 97:1-98:9; Proverbs 26:13-16
• Saturday: Jeremiah 51:1-53; Titus 2:1-15; Psalm 99:1-9; Proverbs 26:17 

Our S.O.A.P. this week is from the book of 1 Timothy:

Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:6-10
"Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.

"But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows."

Observation:
When I read this text today, it made me think of the time I was visiting a new church and the pastor opened his message with the question, "Who wants to get rich?" Almost half the people enthusiastically raised their hands. I thought to myself, "What a creative way to begin a message on the deceitfulness of riches and the need to replace our desire to 'get rich' with the godly contentment."

Contentment is a virtue that is both overlooked and misunderstood. When people in our day and age say they are satisfied with their station in life (with the job they have or with the car they drive or whatever), they are often marked as lazy or "willing to settle for the status quo – the mediocre."

Our culture lauds ambition over contentment (as though they were mutually exclusive). Our world induces us to "dress for success" and "aspire to greatness" and to take steps to assure that we claim as big a piece of life's pie as we can get.

Godly contentment is simply not on the world's radar…which is unfortunate because, according to the Bible, it is the key to true success.

Someone has said it this way: 'True success is not having what you want, but wanting what you have."

Godly contentment is not lazy because it will never let us rest until we have found our true north in living wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ. Godly contentment strives for a treasure that the world does not recognize…and will not rest until it lays claim to it. Its home is in Jesus and Jesus' call. Its destination is true life. It is not distracted by the festooned phoniness of wealth and success, which is destined to perish. And when it finds what it is looking for, it knows…we know.

We know that we are at rest in the arms of the One who will never leave us or forsake us.

Application:
Today I want to make a point of not projecting myself into a future of "better things." I want to celebrate the goodness of my life the way it is now. I want to make the most of the present moment. Today I will love my life the way it is…period. I will cherish "now." I will enjoy today as the gift it is. I will be Jesus' man here and now, resting in the Great "I AM." It strikes me that when God revealed himself to Moses…and for the first time named himself for the human race…he said, "My name is, 'I Am that I Am.'" God is God to us in the present tense. He is not "I Was" or "I Will Be."

I can't seize upon contentment by dwelling on my past accomplishments and failures…and I can't find it by yearning for or trying to predict what is not yet. Godly contentment is a virtue that we can embrace only in the present.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, please envelop me with a contentment that makes no earthly sense, as I pray in Jesus' name. Amen!

Have a great week!

Faithfully,

Chuck