Hebrews 13:5: How Contentment is Truly Gained

Hebrews 13:5 "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you."

We take a brief detour in our study of the Psalms this morning to talk about the topic of contentment. [Why? Because I need it. And so do you.] This perhaps is a repeat devotional [I'm sure that I've done a devotional on contentment before], but nonetheless, contentment is something that we struggle with daily. Furthermore, I strongly believe that contentment is one of the greatest keys to unlocking maturity in Christ. Today, I would like to present to you how the key to obtaining contentment is not obtaining more.

G. K. Chesterson once said "there are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less." Surely, he was right in his assumption, which is what we are going to look at here today. Oftentimes, we think that contentment is found if we gain more and more stuff. Perhaps you are discontent with your financial situation, so you desire more money. Perhaps you are discontent with your job, your friends, or even your family. In our own sinful hearts, we often think that getting a better job, better friends, or dare I say a better family will make us content. But will it? Let us look to the story of David to answer this question.

David, as you all know, was a king of Israel in the Old Testament. He was a great and godly man, but he wasn't perfect. Although the Bible doesn't give a specific number, we know from scripture that David had many, many wives. However, on that treacherous day when David saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof, he told himself that he simply needed one more woman in order to be content. The rest of the story is history, and we all know how it ended: David slept with Bathsheba, and even killed her husband to cover it up (see 2 Samuel 11-12). The moral of the story is this: Gaining contentment does not come from getting what we want.* So often we listen to our sinful hearts as they tell us that if we only had more we would be content, but this is not so. Charles Spurgeon once said "if you are not content with what you have, you would not be content if it were doubled." Certainly he was right. Contentment does not come from obtaining more. But where does it come from?

Hebrews 13:5-6 helps us answer this question greatly. After admonishing us to be content, the author of Hebrews quotes Old Testament scriptures to show that God is always with us. What's the point here? Answer: That all we need to be content is found in Christ. This is exactly what Paul says in Phillipians 4:13 when he says that he can do all things through Christ who gives him strength. He is not saying that he can climb a Mt. Everest or acquire six Super-Bowl rings [Tom Brady already did that without God...], but rather he can do something greater than that: he can be content even when he cannot do those things. The key to contentment is not looking forward to what you can obtain, but looking back and realizing what you already have. Contentment does not come from without, but from within. Jeremicah Burroughs, in his book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment puts this beautifully when he gives an analogy of warming our clothes. When we put clothes on our body, they become warm by the heat of our body (internal heat). If we desired, we could place them next to a fire to warm (external heat), but sooner than later they would be but cold again. Our contentment is the same way. If we keep fashioning our contentment according to our circumstances by warming our clothes with a fire, we will soon again be cold. However, if we learn to warm oru bodies, that is, our souls by the eternal contentment found in Christ, it will not matter how cold our outside circumstaces are. "Surely our contentment does not consist in getting the thing that we deisire, but in God's fashioning our spirits to our conditions."1

Furthermore, we must all realize that "it is a dreadful evil for God to give [man] up to his heart's desires."2 God is wise, sovereign, and loving. He knows not only knows what is best for us, but what is perfect for us (see Romans 8:28). On the contrary, or hearts do not know what is best for us. If God were to give us up to what we wanted, this would be a "dreadful evil." Our hearts are far from God's perfect plans for us. We are weak in faith, and desire seflish things. Therefore, we must be content in God's plan for our lives, and not our own.

So, how can you be more content in your cirumstances? As we've seen above, obtaining more is not the key to contentment. Rather, it is understanding all that you have in Christ. The real question for today is this: what desires must you give up to find contentment in Christ? I encourage you this morning: Christ is all that you need. Stop looking for satisfaction in the things of this world.

I encourage you to pray this prayer this morning to God in order that he might help you become content. I'll pray it with you.

Lord, I am a but a wretched sinner in comparison to your great holiness. Day by day, you have given me your very Son, yet I have been discontent. Lord, I ask of you to fashion my heart to you and you alone. Show me the greatness found in Your Son, and allow me not to find contentment in my circumstances, but in Him alone. God, keep me from stumbling as you have promised. Amen.

*The moral of this story is also that we should not commit adultery or murder, but that's probably implied.

1. Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 74.

2. Ibid, 59.