THE DAYS OF DISCONTENT part 2

Eccles. 9:7 (ESV) Go, eat your bread in joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Discontent - the great disease of our day. In my previous post, I spoke of discontent as it relates to our marriages. Now I will speak of discontent in a more general way. And I want to bring in another theme with it - covetousness.

The author of Ecclesiastes gives us wise counsel here. Eat and drink with joy. This implies that you are happy with what you got. More often that not, we would rather have something else. There is a word for that - discontent. There is also another word - covetousness.

Exodus 20:17 (ESV) "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."

We live in a time when if you don't like what you got, get a new one. If something does not work right, don't fix it - get a new one. And there is always something bigger, small, faster, stronger, better, etc. And even if there is nothing wrong with what we have, we are made to feel like what we have is inadequate. Even with our most basic of supplies, food and drink. We are to learn as Thomas Watson called it "The Art of Divine Contentment."

But yet that is not enough. Because it is not just about learn to accept what we have. The author of Ecclesiastes says "for God has already approved what you do. " Our true contentment comes not by learning contentment in the things of earth, but in the things of heaven. Our contentment is related to our acceptance. And our acceptance in found in Christ.

Romans 5:10 (ESV) For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

This is the most precious of our possessions - our salvation. Nothing else satisfies the longing of our hearts like being accepted by God Himself in the death and resurrection of His son. This is the great longing of our heart. We can be joyful in whatever we have, because we have that which matters most.

Pastor Sloan