Contentment (2)

Hebrews 13:5-6: Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.  For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’  So we may boldly say, ‘The LORD is my helper; I will not fear.  What can man do to me?’

Again, permit a brief section from Contentment: The Secret to a Lasting Calm by Richard A. Swenson, MD, published by NavPress: Colorado Springs, CO in 2013.  From Page 125:

It is perhaps readily apparent that contenement is opposed to covetourness in all its many forms.  How can we tell if we are covetous?  Thosas Watson, author of The Art of Divine Contenement in the seventeenth century, also wrote a treatise on the Ten Commandments.  Here he gives ‘six particulars’ of ‘What it is to covet.’  They hold up well today.
•    When our thoughts are wholly taken up with the world.
•    When we take more pains for getting earth than for getting heaven.
•    When all our discourse is about the world.
•    When we so set our hearts on worldly things, that for the love of them, we will part with heaven.
•    When we overload ourselves with worldly business.
•    When our hearts are so set upon the world, that, to get it, we will use unlawful means.

There are dozens of such particulars in today’s world, but from my observations, only two types of coveting are still regarded wrong in our society: coveting our neighbor’s wife (spouse) and coveting something enough to steal.  All other definitions go largely unchallenged.

Much modern advertising is aimed to induce peer coveting.  If fifteen-year-olds see their friends with designer Jordan shoes, the hottest fashion, or the latest technology, it is fully expected this will begin a cascade of coveting – not just admiring the item, but excessively desiring it to the point of fixation.  In extreme instances, teens have killed peers for their shoes, jackets or phones.

From page 132, quoting J. C. Ryle: There is a peculiar depth of wisdom in the words, ‘I will never leave --- nor forsake.’  Observe, God does not say, ‘My people shall always have pleasant things; they shall always be fed in green pastures, and have no trials – or trials very short and few.’  He neither says so, nor does He appoint such a lot to His people.  On the contrary, He sends them affliction and chastisement.  He tries them – by suffering.  He purifies them – by sorrow.  He exercised their faith – by disappointment.  But still, in all these things He promises, ‘I will never leave – nor forsake.’