Never Content

At what age did you decide that that was enough, that the growth you had attained was enough and you became satisfied, content with life, as it were.

Believe it or not, this age we speak of here has very little to do with a person’s chronological age, it is instead a place on the path where rest is more important than work, where contentment is better than challenges. Older individuals understand this place full well, the “coffee shop” gentlemen, the “Let’s meet for tea” ladies, and especially the “Its time to go to church” Christians. They all remind me of the account in the Book of Proverbs, “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.” (24:30-34)

They have become lazy in their service to the Lord, but call it contentment, their Bibles, if they carry one, have the look of one recently purchased, even though they have had it for years. If you are one of them, you can recognize yourself, if you are a guy, then when you pick that Bible up on Sunday morning, you wipe both sides of it against your pants, if a gal, then you reach for a towel, to get the dust off of it. By Wednesday morning at the latest, you can recall no more of that week’s previous sermon that you can the one four weeks prior to it, and it is not because you have been diligently studying the Book of Romans or Leviticus. You have found a place in your life where the God you have decided to serve is all the God you need; you have become content.

If there is one thing in this life that a born-again believer should never be it is content, for in the first place it goes against everything in Philippians 3:12, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” And in the second, it is nothing, but self-centered pride and slothfulness that has led you to stop any further desire for growth. “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18) Until when? When do we get there, when can anyone who says that they serve a risen Savior say they have attained to all that the Lord wants them to know, that they have received all that He has to give to them, that they are content where they are and need go no further.

I believe that many Christians so-called walk with Christ is no further than the distance they travel to get to the church they attend, that many of them are being deceived by their own hearts, that heart that we are not to trust. (Jer. 17:9) Most see any further growth not as enticing, but as a burden, some have been in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4) and once was enough, and others, to put it quite bluntly, just do not love Him enough to care to search out any more of Him than what has already been revealed to them. Again, I use the statement, “Close enough is good enough.”

Those who have no desire to serve Christ fully have no real desire to serve Him at all, they are as the Lord said to the young man in Mark 12:34, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God,” but He could have just as easily said, “Close enough is not good enough.” 

When we are chosen by God, we are expected to give everything to Him, all the time, without reservations, holding nothing back of ourselves, and not because we will have great treasures and rewards waiting for us in our eternal home, but because He is worthy of all that we are, because we love Him who first loved us. (1 John 4:19) There are no other viable reasons, and He will accept no excuses. This type of love creates within the receiver of it submission, complete and full submission, no questions, just actions, it holds nothing back, it offers all, all the time, it is never content, because it always knows that there is more of Him waiting. It is one of the greatest pleasures of knowing Christ, understanding that there is no end to Him, and that there will always be more of Him to find.