Be Content

Luke 3:14 And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

 Here John the Baptist answers the soldiers when they demand of him what they shall do.  He tells them to not do violence to any man, to not accuse any falsely, and to be content with their wages.

I doubt that his words went over that well with them.  I imagine that they were probably angry with John, but John was not the kind of guy who backed down or sugar-coated the truth.

I wonder how many of us are really “content with [our] wages?”  Are we happy with what God gives us?  Are we thankful for His blessings?  Notice what the Bible says about contentment:

Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

• We should learn to have the attitude of Paul, who was content in whatsoever state he found himself.  Are you content in whatever state you find yourself?
• Paul said knew how to abound and to be abased, how to be full and how to be hungry, how to abound and how to suffer need.  Do you and I know how to do that?

1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

• If we have a relationship with God and are content with just knowing Him, we are extremely wealthy – we have great gain.
• Are you content with just knowing God?  If so, you are more wealthy than the richest man in the world!
• Why should we be happy with just knowing God?  Because in 1 Timothy 6:7, the Bible tells us, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” The riches of the world are really dust and ashes in light of eternity.

1 Timothy 6:8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

• We should be content and satisfied with having food and raiment.  Anything above and beyond clothes to wear and food to eat is a blessing and extra. 
• Are you happy with just having food and raiment?

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

• We are to live our life (conversation = behaviour) without covetousness. 
• We are to be content with such thing as we have.
• We should just be so happy that He has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”  If all we have is the promise of Jesus’ presence, then we should be happy and want nothing else.

God has been so good to us.  He has taken care of us.  There has never been a day that we went hungry or without clothes to wear, but are we happy?  Are we content?  We should be!  Let’s change our attitude.  Let’s get the right focus, and realise that knowing God is the greatest treasure we could ever have!