Valentines day is coming up, and for all the single people out there (like me) it’s not usually up there with the most highly anticipated days of our lives. And no matter how much you pad up for it, this is one day that always seems to sow a seed of discontentment about your lot in life.

Last year I handled it famously by getting my wisdom teeth taken out on the day. It sounded good at the time but in retrospect wasn’t the wisest decision I’ve ever made. Now this year I have a brilliant, fantastic, pain free idea, bound to save anyone from the wellingtons day blues…

Go to the cricket. SA plays Pakistan in the final ODI at the wanderers, on valentines day. Of course if you’re not in the single category they will still allow you in the stadium, but I doubt many ladies’ ideas of a romantic evening include watching cricket. Gents of course could come up with 100 reasons why it’s romantic, maybe including the popular ‘bowling maidens over’ line…(which should technically be ‘bowling maiden overs’ but I doubt there are too many who would notice the difference). That will definitely make you feel a whole lot better, especially considering our awesome track record recently at the stadium (ODI’s. Not tests…)

Anyway. I didn’t actually intend writing about cricket, it’s just that I’m a bit cricket crazy at the moment (no kidding. Check the last post…). I do actually have another solution for those who can’t make the cricket because they live somewhere else in the world, or for those who want a more theologically sound one than the sports-distraction-strategy (which should be a degree course in university. Except all men would get honorary degrees anyway. Cos we’re so good at getting distracted by sport. Yes I see the irony, I’m trying to write something deep and philosophical but keep getting distracted by cricket…).

The only real solution is one of being content with whatever you have. And of course this doesn’t only apply to wellingtons day stuff, in fact it is mainly applicable to the material side of life (houses, cars, clothes etc). At the root of it all is the promise by God to meet all of our needs if we trust in him (Matt 6:25-33), and not only that but to do it abundantly (John 10:10).

James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights…”. God is our provider and giver of everything that is good. And we know He loves to give good things because He is good! He doesn’t like to be good God IS good! As I heard last night in a sermon: ‘God is not good because He does good things, things are good because God does them!’. And He loves to do good things. Matt 7:11 says: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Even if you and God can’t agree on what is good, the fact is that He has promised to meet all of your needs. Those needs include everything down to our daily bread. Yes, He taught us He will provide our daily bread by teaching us to pray in that way. He is the provider of all that we could ever need, and more. And He delights in it.

The reason we are not content with what we have is because we covet. John Piper explains covetousness by saying ‘covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God’. This is so clear in scripture, especially in 1 Tim 6:6-11 where verse 6 reads ”Godliness with contentment is great gain“. In fact in his sermon John even goes on to say that covetousness is idolatry ‘because the contentment that the heart should be getting from God it starts to get from something else’.

Paul speaks about this again in Phillpians 4:11 where he says: “…for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content“. That is such a huge principle for life: Learning to trust God so much that no matter what happens, or no matter what we think we are lacking, or no matter how much we think we need something, that we are content because we have faith in God. And that’s really what it all comes down to: Faith. Complete faith yields complete contentment.

I know that may be tough to appreciate in reality sometimes, but I’ve found it to be completely true in my life. Even though there are things that I feel I need/want/don’t-really-know-if-it’s-need-or-want, I can honestly say I am content. God is good. Above all else he can be trusted with that…

(Great passages on contentment include 1 Tim 6:3-11, 2 Corin 12:9-10, Phill 4:11-13 & Heb 13:5-6)

Posted by Rich on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 12:39 and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.