Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. [Philippians 4:11-13 (MSG)]
Before going grocery shopping, smart shoppers take an inventory of their cupboards to see what is missing. That’s fine when going to market, but it’s not a wise policy when we assess our lives. It’s far too easy to spend time thinking about what we don’t have instead of being thankful for what we actually do possess.
When a friend took me on a tour of her magnificent new home, she kept mentioning the furniture she’d ordered months ago that hadn’t arrived, the incomplete landscaping, the bare walls waiting for pictures, and other finishing touches that still needed to be done. I sympathize since there’s an empty corner in our den waiting for the chair we ordered a year ago and the landscaper still has not laid the promised mulch. Nevertheless, I was struck by how little she was enjoying what, for most of us, would be our dream home. Where was the enthusiasm, joy, and appreciation one would expect her to have? She seemed oblivious to the fantastic view, fine craftsmanship, and all of the beautiful new things that already surrounded her. In the midst of a home worthy of a spread in House Beautiful, she only saw what was lacking.
But then, are any of us that much different? It is incredibly easy to focus on what is missing – be it money, phone calls from the kids, granite countertops, compliments from the spouse, the latest iPhone or Apple watch, premium channels on TV, a grandchild, or one of those Instant Pots does just about everything but wash the dishes! It seems we always want something more, new, different, bigger, or better. Beware, hiding behind that spirit of discontent lurks Satan. Instead of focusing on God’s provision with appreciative hearts, the enemy wants us to focus on our deficiencies.
Satan started that ploy with Eve and continues with it today. She and Adam lived in a perfect world where they could enjoy everything but the fruit of one tree. Did Satan have her look at all she had? No! He had her look at the one thing she didn’t possess so that, rather than appreciation and thanksgiving, her heart was filled with discontent. We continue down the slippery slope of discontent whenever we focus on what we don’t have instead of seeing what we do. Today, instead of an inventory of what we’re missing, how about taking an inventory of our many blessings? Thanksgiving shouldn’t be limited to one day in November; it should be every day!
Thank you, God, for your abundant provision in our lives. Open our eyes to see your blessings and give us grateful hearts for them. Whether we live in abundance or need, may we always remember that you alone are the true source of joy and contentment in our lives.
All our discontents about what we want appear to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have. [Daniel Defoe]
Satan wants us to constantly focus on everything that is wrong with us and look at how far we still have to go. But God desires for us to rejoice in how far we have already come. [Joyce Meyer]
When God sent Jonah to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, it was to warn the people that they would be destroyed for their sins. While we tend to focus on the miracle of Jonah and the sea creature, the real miracle in the Book of Jonah is the city’s response to the prophet’s message—Nineveh immediately repented of its sinful ways. Some forty years later, however, the Assyrians were once again back to their old behavior: rejecting God’s authority and worshipping idols. Around 740 BC, they attacked northern Israel and, in 722, they invaded the remaining kingdom and took Samaria, just as both Hosea and Amos had prophesized they would. The northern kingdom’s population was resettled elsewhere in the Assyrian Empire and Samaria became the center of a new Assyrian province.
Last month, there were sentencing hearings for two politicians in a northern state. One pled guilty to bribery and the other pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. Even though both men abused their positions and betrayed the public’s trust, both of their lawyers argued that their clients’ crimes really weren’t that bad so they didn’t deserve time in jail. In direct reference to the crimes of a former governor of their state, one lawyer argued that wire fraud and money laundering were insignificant when compared to bribing government officials to get lucrative contracts, trying to buy a Senate seat, or shaking down hospitals to get campaign contributions. After the other lawyer pointed out how little money his client actually pocketed from his crime, he called his client’s bribery “a brief dalliance with corruption,” cast the blame on another corrupt official who encouraged him, and assured the court that his client wasn’t a bad person but just a “good person who made a mistake in judgment.”
When learning to walk, a toddler takes a lot of falls and is likely to get some bumps and bruises along the way. Yet, if we ever want the little guys to walk (let alone run or jump), we need to let them fall once in a while. That’s the only way they’ll ever learn how to how pick themselves up again. Blunders and mistakes are how children learn—they’ll spill milk before they can drink from a cup, scribble outside the lines (and on the table) with their first crayons, have several pairs of wet pants before they’re completely potty-trained, and put their shoes on the wrong feet several times before they know left from right! A few mishaps are all part of growing up.
Many stories, novels, operas, musicals, and movies have been based on the theme of selling one’s soul to the devil. In Christopher Marlowe’s 1592 play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, a brilliant scholar who’s sure he’s learned all there is to know by conventional means turns to magic and ends up summoning the devil Mephistopheles. The two agree that, after Faustus has enjoyed twenty-four years of absolute power (with Mephistopheles as his servant), his soul will belong to Lucifer. When the handsome Dorian sells his soul so that he will never age in The Picture of Dorian Gray, he enters into a lifestyle of debauchery. While Dorian remains handsome, his picture changes to reflect the immoral and sinful life he’s led. In the 1968 horror movie Rosemary’s Baby, the naïve Rosemary discovers that her husband sold both his soul and her womb to Satan for riches and career success. As expected, none of those tales end well. The Devil and Daniel Webster, however, does but only because of the eloquence of the famed lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster.
“They are to be pitied, not….” Not what? Author C.S. Lewis did not complete the sentence and I don’t think the omission was by accident. When I read the above passage, I thought of the words I (as a Christian) should use to replace the ellipsis; they are not to be reviled, hated, judged, condemned, berated, scorned, abused, or despised. Regretfully, my initial reaction upon running across the scum of the earth—the rapists, molesters, traffickers, exploiters, extorters, attackers, murderers, deceivers, hate-spewers, and tyrants that seem to populate our world—is more likely to be the exact opposite. Rather than a feeling of pity, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, or love, it’s one of outrage, loathing, and disgust.
Devotions of the Heart 