While watching the Kansas Jayhawks play basketball on Saturday, I became keenly aware of the intent and goal of each of the commercials on TV.  They were designed to arouse a sense of dissatisfaction and an incensed desire.

The pitch lines may have been a little different, but the message was the same:

• You can’t be happy and fulfilled with the life you have—unless you buy our product.
• You will never be whole and feel like you belong—unless you join our group or support our cause.

The more you believe the lies of the world, the more you will feel like somebody owes you some- thing. This breeds a sense of entitlement that can be the onset of resentment, and resentment and contentment cannot coexist.

This constant onslaught of “something must be bought” to find happiness and fulfillment or “the world owes you” is foreign to the thinking of the Apostle Paul:

Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit.  For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either.  But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that (I Timothy 6:6-8).

Notice the characteristics of contentment:

• Godliness is enhanced by the presence of contentment
• There is the realization that you were born with nothing and there is nothing in this world that you can take to heaven with you when you die
• You are satisfied with the blessings God has given you and do not resent the manner in which He blesses others
• The key to contentment is the content of your life, and Paul called this godliness

If want to hear the expression of contentment, take a moment to read Psalm 145.  In the first two verses of this Psalm you’ll find the words “praise” and “bless” repeated.  These are the words of contentment not resentment.

Here’s a thought to keep you thinking:   “Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness ( Pearl S. Buck).”