Understanding Contentment

Contentment is not the absence of want.  If you go to your dictionary, it will define contentment as the absence of desire.  This is also how most people would think of contentment.  

Psalm 20:4 ESV

May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans! 

Psalm 21:2 ESV

You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah 

Psalm 145:16 ESV

You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. 

Psalm 145:19 ESV

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. 

Proverbs 11:23 ESV

The desire of the righteous ends only in good; the expectation of the wicked in wrath.

Proverbs 13:12 ESV

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. 

Proverbs 13:19 ESV

A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but to turn away from evil is an abomination to fools.

Okay, so I typed the word "desire" into a word search for the Bible, for the ESV, and all these verses are a few from just Psalms and Proverbs.  There were pages and pages left.  It is obvious in just these few verses that God is not about abolishing desire, never mind the pages worth I didn't post.  Desire is a huge part of God's plan.  Does God not offer you heaven?  Is that not an enticement toward desire?  Does he not offer desire in knowing Him?  Isn't that what God wants most from you?  To desire Him more?  We know it is!!!  So, not desiring anything more than what you have in no way fits with a Biblical worldview.  Not wanting anything is a Buddhist idea, and we call it Nirvana.  This of course is a self-referential absudity (i.e. something that by merely saying it, proves it wrong, like "there are no absolutes" is an absolute).  In order to achieve Nirvana, you have to desire it.  Nirvana is a desire in and of itself.  To not desire is to not exist.

So, if contentment isn't the abolition of desire, then what is contenment?  Contentment is a state of thankfulness .  Thankfulness, on a grand level, is achieved only once we understand what we actually deserve... hell.  When we finally understand that we deserve hell, than we become free to be thankful for everything, literally everything.  If we have such a perspective, everything becomes wonderful.  We become thankful for every good thing we get.  We can no longer take that desire and feel that we deserve more.  We cannot let it turn us to anger.  Why?  because whatever we have is already so much greater than what we should get, that it is great, even if it less than all we want.  

For example, I am here in New Braunfels.  I have been here since Friday, and will be here until Tuesday.  It is my home, and I love it.  There is something about this place.  Part of me wishes I could live here.  Does that desire make me discontented because I desire something?  No.  Why?  Because joy is what is in my heart.  I feel joy because I am so very thankful for Dallas.  It may not be the number one place on Earth, but it is a wonderful place.  I have made many friends there, and have grown to see it's good.  Compared to hell, which is what I deserve, it is bliss.  Besides, our hearts desires are paradoxical.  We almost always want conflicting things at the same time.  Right now I wish I were here, in Ireland, Rome, Lake City Colorado, Paris, Scotland, and a dozen other places.  Yet, I can only be in one.  I wish I were with every person I loved, all at once, but also individually. See what I mean?

So, let us be thankful!  Let us always remember what we really deserve, that we might always be thankful that Jesus took it all on Himself, though He did NOT deserve it, and made a way for us to have what we are to desire most, intimacy with God Himself!  Surely He is good!  Let us never feel entitled to anything but hell, that everything we would receive otherwise would push us toward praise toward the God that granted us such a freedom, that grants the desires of our hearts!  Praise be such a wonderful God!  Amen!