Sending Help From The Sanctuary: The Contentment Factor

Posted on July 16, 2017

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Sending Help From The Sanctuary: The Contentment Factor

Contentment is a virtue that many people lack in our days. The rat-race and crave for wealth that is rampant in our societies has to be addressed. There is ambition or the desire for excellence which is normal, but when it has mutated into greed and covetousness, it is something to watch against.

The Bible in Proverbs 3:13-18 says, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.”

Wisdom is used as a metaphor here, a living thing or personality that has wealth and long life in her hands; but the sons of men prefer to take only the wealth. Some don’t care about long life; others don’t care about the personality of wisdom itself. Wisdom is also personified as a tree of life that gives food in due season. In other words, it is always satisfying.

God is supreme. He is Omniscient, knowing the future and everybody better than they know themselves (Psalm 139: 1-16: Matthew 6:7-8). That is why the Bible records that His will must be done on earth, as it heaven (Mt 6: 10). Concerning praying and receiving from the Lord, His will for every matter is known in His word and as the Holy-Spirit reveals the things that are freely given to the individual, as he enquires or as God deems fit to reveal to him.

This is seen in 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 which says, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”

There are some things that are freely given to us like air, water, etc, and we do not need the Holy Spirit to reveal that to us; to know this. The “know” in Greek means to perceive, discern, discover through your senses or your mind. There is an effort to find out the things that are freely given to us; because not everything is freely given. “Freely given” as seen is the above scripture means in Greek, “to do something pleasant or agreeable (to one); to do a favour to someone, to gratify”. Once we are able to find out the things that are freely given to us, we will be contented and there would be no reason to envy the other person.

Another meaning is to gratify, in other words, we can deserve favour by the things we do such as working with God in preaching of the kingdom message. Jesus said in John 4; that He would give us salary if we join Him in the harvest field. It is the freely given that can put us in a position where we deserve things that other people are struggling to get. Open doors can be our portion when we work for God because we would deserve His blessings. And even when we do not have enough, we can know that that is the will of God for us at the moment, because nothing is permanent.

Christianity is an individual calling (See Isaiah 45:4; Galatians 6:4-5). Due to the divers nature of men (what is good for Brother A might not be good for Brother B or Sister C), God in His infinite wisdom gives unto men as He wills—as will benefit them and as will glorify His name. This can be seen in the parable of the pounds in Matthew 25:14-30.

Apostle had this understanding so he said, “For I would that all men be even as myself; but every man has his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that.” (1 Corinthians 7:7). In other words, everyone has his own proper, befitting gift from God as seen in 1 Corinthians12:4-11 and Matthew 19:10-11). Not all men know this, hence they fret when God does not answer their prayers the way they like, and many run ahead of God to get what He has not given, to cause sorrow for themselves in their tomorrow. I know of a man who had always longed to own a car. The day he bought one and drove it with his friends, he had an accident and he died. So when you see that your neighbour has 5 cars while you don’t even have one, do not be envious. Or when your neighbour’s business is booming and you venture into it; that may not be what God has in mind for you. Be contented in your own effort, do not envy still. Instead of being envious, get into the sanctuary and ask God for His will for you. You will find that God’s will for you is always better than what you want for yourself.

Absalom and David are quick examples of how greed and covetousness; how a lack of contentment can cause sorrow for someone’s future. Covetousness will always cause us to get into trouble.

2 Samuel 12:7-12 says, “Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.”

David received punishment from God for greed and lack of contentment with all the women in his life, to the point that he had to murder Uriah and take his wife. Greed, covetousness and lack of contentment will always get us into trouble. David was a friend of God, yet God was strong in the usage of language against David’s sin.

Psalm 89 tells of God’s loving kindness and faithfulness, and scriptures such as Lamentations 3:22-23 confirm this. But many times we say that God is faithful only when He does what we want, and when we don’t get what we want, we say He’s not faithful. But it is not our definition of God’s faithfulness that counts, it is His own definition that counts. God will give us to benefit us and to glorify His name, and in His perfect time. It is our contentment in the fact that God is always right that keeps us going till His perfect time to answer us.

Mark 7:24-30 says, “And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.”

God loves His children beyond their understanding. He is more mindful of blessing His children than others. This is seen in the above story where a Syrophonecian (non-Jew) woman asked for His intervention and He told her that what she was asking for was meant for His children. But the woman, through her faith and persistence, was able to receive from the Lord, because she presented herself as a loveable creature (as a pet dog, not wild dog). God sees us as loveable creatures.

In Romans 4:18-22, God qualified Abraham by His faith. By the Syrophoenecian woman’s faith and worship for God, Jesus was moved to answer her. And until we get to that level, our moving the hand of God in the sanctuary will always be difficult. When our worship of God deepens, so will our relationship with Him deepen and we will receive what others are not receiving.

A good point to note in the Mark 7:24-30 account is the fact that the exchange of words happened alone with Jesus Christ. The Syrophoenecian woman understood what many don’t understand that you have to get into the sanctuary alone with God, to make pressing demands. That is where the laws of God can be changed to meet your need. In the absence of that, contentment must reign in you life. Contentment as a show of love and trust for God is a road we must all work on. We have a lot to learn from Israel in the wilderness.

Psalm 78:1-8, 17-31 says, “Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. . .And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.”

God’s people were instructed to read and repeat this Psalm to their children, so that generations after them would know that greed and covetousness calls forth the anger of God. God used the word LUST to describe their greed. In the wilderness they lusted after food, and refused to trust God for provision. Even though God gave them manna, they were not contented, they lusted for meat and God gave them meat in anger, but slew them as they ate it. God even broke the law of nature to give them that meat. He stopped the east wind on which quails glide on their annual migration, and then allowed them to fall into the camp of the Israelites. When we twist the hand of God out of lack of contentment, we may get what we want, but we need understanding to receive from God in peace so that we would not cause trouble for ourselves.

Are you ambitious? What have you been trying to achieve in life? God does not have any issue with ambition but it must be controlled else it will turn to lust. It was almost seventeen years after I left school, (I did not finish my PHD) that God told me that He took me out of school because my pursuit for knowledge had become lust, it was becoming a god to me, but God came to my rescue.
In Exodus 16:13-27, God provided manna for His people, bread from heaven. But when they saw it, they said, “what is this?” in other words, they disdained it. Manna was later called “Corriander”, a fruit, because of its taste. Among ancient doctors, Coriander was known to Hippocratic (father of medicine) and Pliny as ‘Coriandum’ because of its “buggy” smell, Coris being a bug. How could God go out of His way to give them heavenly food and they disdain it? There is nothing that God gives that is not good. The Psalmists says, “O taste and see that the Lord id good!” There is nothing He does that is not good. We are the ones who may not understand.

What has God given you and what are you saying about it? Has God given you a child you call stubborn or idiot? Make sure you don’t disdain God’s gift to you. Bless Him for what He has given today, tomorrow is another day to get more.

Even when the Israelites were instructed to gather only the quantity of manna they could eat per day, they still took more because of lack of contentment, and it bred worms. Only when they gather more for the Sabbath according to God’s instruction that it did not breed worms. We must learn to trust in God and follow His instructions concerning receiving from Him.

God takes the sins of greed and covetousness seriously, He even told Moses to put the Manna in the Ark of the Covenant as a memorial—a lesson for all of us (See Exodus 16:31-33). Jesus warned us: “Take heed and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”, giving the story of a rich fool as an example in Luke 12:15-20; the man forgot God in his riches; he did not allow God to use his prosperity. The scriptures did not say that he was a thief or a wicked man; he only did not involved God in his spending, because God would have instructed him to share.

Ecclesiastes 6:7 tells us that the eyes and desires of man can never be satisfied. In other words, if we gather all the money in this world, it can never meet all our needs, because as wealth increases, responsibilities also increase alongside. When we understand the way God works, we will live in peace.

A little desire for Bathsheba, a little giving in to covetousness for another man’s wife plagued David all his life. What was the result? The sword never departed from his house. His son Absalom raped his (David’s) wives before all Israel; rebelled against him and lost his life for it (2 Samuel 11-18). One moment of covetousness, he lived to suffer for it all his life. Without controversy, covetousness is a sin that leads to other sins.

A lack of contentment breeds in us:
(1) Betrayal, in our case, of God. See Korah (Num. 16 and 17)
(2) Idolatry – here the worship of yourself (Corinthians 3:5; Hebrews 13:5)
(3) A wicked heart (Jeremiah 10: 9; Proverbs 6:18).
When we lack contentment, we despise the Lord and betray God’s trust in us to display His nature.
We must know that our contentment factors will be tested. The devil will show us different reasons to make us desire beyond what God has given us for today. We need to rise up to it so that we can build up resistance, and contentment can be a part of us.

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