Hebrews 13:5

Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”

As a little boy it was a fantastic moment when I had enough money to buy a Mars bar. I assumed that the perfect world must be the one in which you could buy lots of Mars Bars. I thought of a friend of ours who had a lot of money and guessed that he would be able to buy a Mars Bar every hour; I thought that must be the very best life! Young as I was I had fallen for the materialist lie that says the objective of life is always to acquire more. But the way to peace and true contentment is to be satisfied with what you have. The advertising industry does everything it can to persuade us that that is not the case; we need to be strong and resolute to stand up against the continual flood of images and words that encourage us to want more of everything.

Our verse today gives us a very powerful reason for being content with what we have: unlike money, God will never let us down. There is nothing inherently wrong with money. It is part of God’s creation and we should be grateful for any of it that comes our way. But money has many shortcomings. It comes and goes depending on our needs and spending habits and is vulnerable to changes in the economy. It can easily be stolen or lost through unforeseen expenses. Money needs to be respected and used wisely but should never be loved. It is the love of money that is at the root of all evil.

In Philippians the apostle Paul declared that he had learned to be content with whatever he had. “I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little” (Philippians 4:12). Surely that kind of contentment is something that we should all desire and work hard to achieve.

Question Are you content in life at the moment? If not, what do you need to do to move towards a life of contentment?

Prayer Thank you, Lord, that you promise never to leave us or abandon us. Help me to find my peace in you today. Amen