Be content with what you have—it’s quite a trick, isn’t it?

A vast industry exists to stop you and me from feeling content. Marketers expose us to thousands of ads a day via billboards, television, radio and the internet. Students attend universities to study advertising, sometimes called creative communication.

Advertisers hope to shape you—to influence you—to mold you into the type of person they want you to be. Do they keep the flourishing of society at the heart of their business model? Do they have your best interests at heart? Of course not. Profits make their bottom line, and our money is the means to their success.

Counter this churning with Paul’s wisdom. Writing to expose those who hoped to act godly and therefore achieve financial wealth, Paul added:

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

A simple thought running counter to a message we hear a thousand times a day, every day of the year.

Contentment never follows the purchase. Material goods wear out, fall from mind, or simply get lost in the back of a closet. The answer we’re told is to buy more and feel better. We often do feel better for a short time, but still lack contentment.

Take Paul’s word to heart. Close your computer and turn off the TV. Roll his words around in a quiet moment. Let this radical idea of contentment with godliness, of resting in the Lord and enjoying his gifts, settle into your soul.

1 Timothy 6 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez