Danger of Discontentment

Do you ever find yourself dealing with discontentment?  

As a Christian we have the incredible privilege of being in relationship with the God of the universe. Through Christ we have been given supernatural provision for both this life and our spiritual life.  According to scripture and experience Jesus never fails!  We also have this promise that “all things work together”, that “nothing separates us from His love” and that we are both now and eternally “more than conquerors through Christ.” (Roman 8) It only makes sense that discontentment should be rare in the believers life. Yet somehow we all experience it, undoubtedly more often than we want to admit.  

Someone described discontentment very simply as being dissatisfied with our circumstances because our expectations are unmet.  

Discontentment displays itself in a myriad of ways in our life.  When we are discontent we are prone to, complaining, worrying, being preoccupied with what we don’t have rather than what we possess, greed, jealousy, never being satisfied, being hard to please, critical, sad and perpetually disappointed.  

Discontentment is a sin, and left unbridled it becomes the parent of much worse off-spring.  It destroys marriages, creates addiction, divides churches, spends money and wastes decades in the lives of men and women who are always chasing ever-elusive satisfaction.  

Discontentment is not new.  

The disciples who lived with Jesus, watched Him perform miracles and participated in His earthly ministry were not immune from wanting more.

I think about what James and John said to Jesus in Mark 10. They actually spoke their discontentment to Jesus face.  

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 

What an interesting approach to prayer.  Honest and embarrassing at the same time and it is a reflection of the discontentment that was in their heart.  They were with Jesus but were not satisfied to be disciples only, they were trying to negotiate for a better position in Christ Kingdom.

37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

Someone said, Discontentment is sin because it is evidence that we treasure something—or someone—more than we treasure Christ.  This was certainly the disciples issue.  They longed for a position in Christ Kingdom more than the relationship with Jesus Himself.  

Discontentment has everything to do with our focus. Looking in the wrong direction will always produce yearning for something more.  

To focus primarily on ourselves will create discontentment in us.  To be so centered around our needs, our wants, our desires, our deficiency will inevitably cause us to become unhappy with, you guessed it, OUR circumstances.  

Stephen Arterburn speaks to the futility focusing only on our desires.  “When we settle for unhealthy and unfulfilling imitations of what we really desire, our appetites can begin to rage out of control and start controlling us. We will turn to sources of satisfaction that will eventually turn on us and force us either to give up altogether or to overindulge to the bitter end.”

Looking at other things or people moves us to dissatisfaction.   Discontentment is unmet expectations because we have expected satisfaction from the wrong place. It is putting the pressure on something or someone else to meet our needs and asking them or that to do what they or that have no capability of doing. 

Contentment then is found by turning our focus on the Lord.  Looking to the only one that can actually meet our needs.  Something supernatural happens in each of us when we trust the Lord with what we have and what we  do not have.  When we thank the Lord for His provision and rejoice in who He is we experience incredible contentment, regardless of our circumstances.  Philippians 4

Paul was right when he wrote to young Timothy,  “godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Tim. 6:6)  By the Spirit’s help we learn that the key to finding contentment is knowing and being known by Christ.  The pursuit of all earthly “gain” only leaves us grasping for more.  Only Jesus can satisfy our soul.  

Clara Williams, who was raised in wealth, reminds us of this truth this morning.  

1. All my life I had a panted

For a drink from some clear spring,

That I hoped would quench the burning

Of the thirst I felt within.

2. Poor I was, and sought for riches,

Something that would satisfy,

But the dust I gathered round me

Only mocked my soul’s sad cry.

chorus

Hallelujah! I have found Him

Whom my soul so long has craved!

Jesus satisfies my longings,

Through His blood I now am saved.

Seek Him today and find true contentment.  

BE ENCOURAGED, WE’RE CHRISTIANS!

PT