Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. – Hebrews 13:5
Spring arrived last week, and across the United States, from backyards to farms, men and women have begun to work the soil of their gardens, whether for crops to eat or flowers to adorn the table. While waiting for the plants to mature and give their harvest, the garden still needs attention. Weeds need to be eliminated. Water and nutrients need to be supplied. The soil must be aerated regularly. While you are busy cultivating, God takes care of the miracle of growing!
Contentment in the Christian life is like a garden that needs continual tending. Contentment is a recurring theme in the New Testament. “Be content with what you have,” today’s verse says. Be content with food and clothes, Paul tells Timothy (1 Timothy 6:6-8), rather than craving for riches, which leads to ruin (verse 10). He discusses his own experience regarding contentment in Philippians 4:10-15. Richard Burroughs, an English Puritan, published The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment in 1648, calling it “that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”
You can cultivate contentment by enriching the soil of your heart through prayer and thanksgiving, eliminating the things of the world that choke out your time with the Lord, and tending to the study of His Word as a priority. This requires the same disciplines as tending a spring garden. In return, you deepen the understanding of Christ’s sweet, soul-satisfying sufficiency in your life.
Today’s Verse: 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.”
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Hebrews 13:1-9, 16
13 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 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.” 6 So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.
16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
