Contentment: The Internal Battle God Must Win
By: Luke Bales
Contentment is defined by Merriam-Webster as the quality or state of being content. To be content means to display satisfaction with one’s possessions, status, or situation. The idea of contentment is heavily related to the way we handle money and the way we view our possessions. From a biblical perspective to be content is to believe that God owns it all. Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have…” Storing up possessions that will ultimately decay is not our goal; our goal is to target the core of the money conversation which is the heart. The spending trail of money exposes what your heart truly desires. We may desire the material goods, services, or even investments over the power of contentment. We could be investing because of a hope to become totally independent from God or get a false sense of security from those investments. Contentment leads to a positive margin in our budget which allows for the opportunity to start building freedom in our finances. Contentment is a tool to leverage against our mind and heart. Financial contentment is a war against the very nature of our minds. We are hardwired to want, hoard, and consume all the assets that we can. Contentment is letting go of material things and finding the hidden but rewarding path to both happiness and financial freedom.
Ron Blue writes in his book, Master Your Money, “Do your giving while you are living.” The real test of true contentment is recognizing that you have a greater than average margin of your cost of living. As a result, you proceed to actively search for ways to give your extra margin away. The best way to achieve this is by setting goals, finish lines, and defining what is enough. How much is enough for you? What are your wants and desires? Does God have any impact on our financial decisions? In order to define what our “enough” is, we must search for answers to these questions, from the one who is all-knowing.
I was recently challenged by a quote, “some people are so poor all they have is money.” This provoked me to question what the proper use of money is. The answer: money is a tool. Money is malleable and that is represented in our budget. Decreasing one aspect of our budget, subsequently increases our margin. Margin is created in our budgets just as a product would. Here is an example: Let’s say you have $100. You pay tax of $10 and tithe $10. You then use $60 to live off of. That means you burn $80 in responsibilities which leaves you with a positive margin of $20 or 20%. There are only five uses of money: taxes, giving, debt, living expenses, growth (investments). There are no independent money decisions; if one of these increases, naturally one will decrease.
Given the five uses of money, let’s consider how to manage our margin. Prioritizing the responsibilities of tithing, then paying debt or taxes, and living results in extra margin which can be used to give even more. How do we find the right time and motivation to tithe? If your mind and heart are not currently postured to give, I suggest reading the account in Mark of “The Widow’s Offering.” In Mark 12:41-44, Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd placing their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to Him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on” (Mark 12:43-44, NIV). Christians are called to a life of service and that includes our finances. It is easier for a poor man to enter God’s kingdom than a rich man. We look for security in our finances. We push to constantly grow the positive margin of our budget, but when do we stop? The questions can only be answered by God. Read, pray, and listen for His answer.
