Contentment for Safety

Proverbs 30:8-9

8 Remove far from me falsehood and lies; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is needful for me: 9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is Jehovah? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and use profanely the name of my God.

There was a time I did not understand the concept of being content in whatever situation may happen in my life.  I know I have not arrived, but I sure am a lot better off than I was prior to knowing that God had a plan for my life.  

The apostle Paul told us that he had learned the art of being content in whatever situation he was in, and that was proven by his life...Philippians 4:11  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 

I believe Paul's secret to being content was being convinced that he would spend eternity with Christ.  Before knowing Christ, I can remember chasing after the things of this world only to come up empty every time.  I only got temporary pleasure, whether it was drugs, drinking, or just chasing after what the world had convinced me was fun.  The world’s fun is temporary.

Just imagine if your happiness totally relied on your family, your job, your favorite hobby or even your favorite sports team.  Everything I have listed will fail you at some point but Gods love and His word never fails us.

As a believer if you are walking with God and praying what this scripture states…. Proverbs 30: 8 Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is needful for me and not chasing greedily after the riches of this world then you can be assured what God provides for you is exactly what you need and therefore you are able to remain content.

As we look at verse 9.... Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is Jehovah? Or lest I be poor, and steal, And use profanely the name of my God.  It needs to be of deep concern and prayer that I remain on the steps that God has planned for me and continually ask God, give me what you want me to have.

You know me better than anybody else,

You know what I can handle,

You know how much wealth will puff me up with pride and forget You, and

You know how little I can handle so that I would not do something illegal and forget You as well.

The word of God tells us in 1 Timothy 6:6 that godliness with contentment is great gain.... I can remember when I first came to Christ and literally had nothing materialistic; it was probably the most content time of my life.  So it is a constant battle as we gain wealth, position, and fame that we pray that God would keep us content and give us exactly what we need.  If we want great gain in our life and be able to walk in constant freedom, we need to remain content where there is safety.