The Value Of Being Content

by Roman New
(Waverly, Ohio, USA)

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

Being free from the love of money, and to be happy in what we do have, comes by experiencing the promise that the Spirit is always near us, and within us. Having a love for money that exceeds our love for the Spirit is like having weeds and rocks in our newly planted garden. The rocks and weeds do not allow the fruit of the Spirit to blossom from within us.

As we learn to appreciate what we do have and worry less about what we lack then the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control will blossom in us. We know that the Spirit is always with us because we feel the presence in our life through the fruit of the Spirit.

The human body is the dwelling place of the living God and needs to be the only subject of our love. The love of money grieves the Spirit and this sadness is evident because the fruit of joy, comfort, and peace begins to disappear from our emotional feelings.

When we worry over money and neglect the Spirit that lives in us then we feel sadness, discomfort, and turmoil. The love of money leaves us with horrible emotional feelings where there is no peace found within. However, the promise states that God will always be with us and will never forsake us.

The Spirit lives within us and as we love the Spirit more than we love money there will be comfort, peace, and joy within.

We feel that money is important to us because we buy our groceries, our mattresses to sleep on, and money provides us emotional relief so that we can breathe just a little easier. What if we loved money so much that the Spirit was grieved and there were no fruit blossoming in our life?

Without self-control we would eat and drink to unhealthy proportions that lead to our self-destruction. And without comfort and joy we would feel unrest on the best quality mattress and would be uncomfortable and filled with sadness regardless of the things that money could buy.

We cannot find contentment through the things that money can buy so we should learn to be happy in what we do have. What we do have that will never leave us is a contentment that is found in the presence of the Spirit. In the presence of the Spirit the fruit of comfort and joy will blossom.

We relate our security in life to the stability that we find through employment where we earn money to sustain our life. A love for money would require that we place more value on our employer than what we place on the presence of the Spirit. Valuing our employer beyond the love that we have for the Spirit jeopardizes the security that we feel within us. The Spirit would be grieved and the fruit of goodwill, kindness, and comfort would not exist at the workplace. Because of our love for money the atmosphere of the workplace becomes chaotic, stressful, and filled with friction.

As we learn to be content in what we have we can be secure in the presence of the Spirit, that is always with us, where the fruit of the Spirit bloom.

If we love money more than the contentment we find in our present circumstances our relationships will be affected. The fruit of faithfulness, love, and goodwill will not be present if we choose money over the Spirit and our relationships will fail. Instead of faithfulness we would betray each other for monetary gain, instead of love there will hatred towards those who have more wealth, and instead of goodwill there will be evil intentions towards the prosperous.

We have to value the presence of the Spirit more than we value money. There is a promise that the Spirit is faithful to always be with us in every circumstance and the fruit of the Spirit will blossom in our relationships.

The love for money affects the value that we hold for the worth of others. Can you imagine a world where the only value we had towards one another related to the amount of money we could gain from the person. The atmosphere created would be criminal in nature when money becomes more important than the people we see from day to day.

The fruit of goodness, goodwill, and self-control would not exist in our quest for money. We would look on others with evil intentions for gaining their wealth, there would be no charity towards others because we would desire to take not to give, and there would be no self-control in our quest to have more money. However, as we learn to be content in our circumstances the Spirit is pleased and from within our self the fruit will bloom. The fruit of the Spirit gives us value for our own worth and gives us goodwill towards the value of others.

The way that we express our self reveals the subject of our love. When the fruit of the Spirit is not present in our life and we are filled with a desire for money the subject of our love is apparent. You can envision a person who is sad, hateful, harsh, and out of control when the circumstances of life leaves this person with little money.

The person would express themselves in undesirable ways until the opportunity for having money materialized. The self-expression of that person would be very imposing on the kind and loving nature of others.

However, when we are content in what we have the Spirit promises to always be with us and the fruit will blossom in our life. Our self-expression will be filled with love, patience, goodness, self-control, and gentleness.

ROMAN NEW IS THE AUTHOR OF “VALUES OF A SPIRITUAL MIND: ESSAYS FOR LIVING” . Published April 06, 2011 www.xlibris.com/ValuesOfASpiritualMind.html