Learn to Be Content
Tom Shrader examines contentment as the often-overlooked key to spiritual maturity, using Paul's teaching from prison in Philippians 4 and his instructions in 1 Timothy 6. He explains that godliness plus contentment equals great gain, and that understanding the temporary nature of all earthly possessions (we came with nothing, leave with nothing) is essential to finding satisfaction. The teaching addresses the challenge of being content whether in prosperity or humble circumstances.
“The minute we hear that, I think, well, wait a minute. If I'm satisfied, I'm going to lose my edge.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Tools for Finishing Strong
Recorded: November 07, 2018
Duration: 45 min
Themes: contentment, joy, satisfaction, gratitude, materialism, possessions, circumstances, prosperity, aging gracefully, financial struggles, wealthy believers, retirement planning, career transitions, middle aged, materially blessed, facing hardship
Scripture: Philippians 4:10-13, 1 Timothy 6:6-8, 1 Timothy 6:9, 1 Timothy 6:17-18, Ecclesiastes 5:10-15
Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual maturity, godliness, biblical contentment, stewardship, eternal perspective, christian living, discipleship
Full Transcript
We are in week nine of a series that is now titled Tools for Finishing Strong. Again, a little bit of a recap: this grows out of the whole aging discussion and realizing that what I heard over and over again is "I want to finish strong," but there was some idea that there was these extraordinary things I had to do. The reality is I finish strong by doing what I've been doing.
What happened when we dug deep in terms of conversation, in terms of some data that Glenn collected, a lot of paragraphs that some of you filled in is that people weren't prepared just as many aren't prepared financially—they weren't prepared spiritually for aging. So if I'm going to finish strong, the implication is I started or at least started strong. We're going back and I'm in the process of creating, I think, a series that becomes in a way the opus for all of Priority Living. There's elements in here of all the things we've talked about for 30 years, that seems so weird to say.
Today, this is my assessment—it may not be yours—it is my wheelhouse. In my life, if I was just on the website for Cannon Beach, and I was supposed to be up there to teach over Thanksgiving and I canceled a couple of months ago, I just don't think I can do the travel and I don't want to do it. So I'm to the point where I don't do what I don't want to do.
The Missing Ingredient in the Christian Life
But if I were to parachute into some place, and they said, "You get to talk about one thing," and it's not gospel, it's not salvation, it's kind of "How do you work through life?" This would be, in my mind, the missing ingredient in the Christian life.
So I printed off for you really two passages of scripture and start in Philippians chapter four, verse 10 through 13. Paul's writing and the context in Philippians four is Paul's writing about joy. Now Paul's not naive. It might even seem odd to you that Paul writes about joy from prison. But there's a power in that, that tells us that there's some distinction to be made between joy and being happy.
You know, I can have, again, something as frivolous as an Iowa win, and I'm happy. But if you're an Iowa fan, you're only going to be happy till next week. I mean, you're a solid six and six team, you get used to it. But joy is something that's designed to transcend that circumstance. And we see it here.
Paul's Secret to Contentment
So Philippians 4:10: "But I rejoice." And here's the key—if you got your pen, you can start marking—"in the Lord." That's where my joy is. It's not in a McSally, or a Cinema, or Trump, or an Oprah, or a cheeseburger, or a steak. Those are all circumstantial. Not to say they aren't important—that's the big disclaimer that I have to do at the beginning of this whole discussion. This is not anti-material, or anti-stuff, or it's not meant as a message to give you apathy.
It's to strive toward what Paul says is the secret. Look at what He says, verse 11: "Not that I speak from want." So He's saying, "I'm in prison, and I'm not speaking out of want, but I have"—here's the next word to circle—"learned." So whatever it is we're looking at is not natural, it's supernatural. I've learned this. And what He says is, "I've learned"—and here's the buzzword—"I've learned to be content." I've learned to be content in whatever the circumstances are.
He goes on, and He says, "I know how to get along with humble means, I know how to live in prosperity, I have learned"—verse 12, next circle word—"the secret." We all want a secret. I'm an infomercial guy. And now, on DirecTV, I've got infomercials all day long. And there's always, the hook is always a secret: "I found the secret to weight loss, the secret to sleeping through the night."
Everyone Claims to Have a Secret
We like it in athletics. I date myself, but when Ali was fighting in His prime—this is hard to imagine now—almost all those fights were on ABC TV. You didn't have a lot of pay-per-view. Frazier was pay-per-view, Foreman was pay-per-view, all the others, Ken Norton was on TV. They'd always do the hype, and it was Howard Cosell, and they'd be interviewing Carl Mildenberger, who you won't remember, but He was a German heavyweight. He would say, "Well, I have found the secret. I found the secret to defeating Him, I've watched tape."
And every time, it'd be the same thing. I'd get kind of gaffed on this, and I'd think, "This is going to be the time." And then after about five rounds, they forgot what the secret was, because they're just standing there getting hit, and the secret's gone.
Paul says, "I found the secret. I found the secret to being content, whether I got a little, whether I got a lot." Paul said, "I've learned to be content"—I better figure out what this is—"with a lot, with a little. It's not driven by my circumstance. I have the secret weapon."
The True Meaning of Philippians 4:13
"I've learned, Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." So if you're an athlete or a coach, that's like the verse they all put on their uniforms, you know, write on the tape on their wrists: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." He's not saying I'm faster than a speeding bullet, or more powerful than a locomotive, or I can leap taller than a high building. He's not saying I can do these extraordinary things. That's nice, it preaches well, it sells wristbands.
What He's saying is, "I learned how to get by with nothing, and for most of us, here's the part that's hard, I've also learned to be content in prosperity." Because there's this idea that I'm lacking, when I get the need met, I'm going to be happy, content. It just doesn't work that way.
I have three or four things, apps, on my phone that I check all day long for news and stuff. USA Today is one of them. The Red Sox won the World Series. Within an hour—they still got the goggles on and spraying each other with champagne, they haven't showered—within an hour, USA Today ran a story on the four teams likely to be in the World Series next year. We're an hour away, we
We haven't even got pitchers and catchers in yet. We want to go to the next one. And I guarantee you, in Boston, after they had the parade and broke the trophy, I guarantee you, management's together saying, how are we going to get this together again? How are we going to do it together?
The Go-To Passage
Now the second passage, and this is the one we're going to hang in. And if you're an old or young, but frequent visitor to Priority Living, you've been to this passage, 1 Timothy 6. It's the go-to. It's one of those for me that when I got there, it was like this moment. It was like love at first sight. I tingled. I just said, wow, this is incredible.
So let's read it through and then break it apart. Paul's writing, and he said, "Godliness is actually a means of great gain which is accompanied by contentment. For we brought nothing into the world. We can't take anything out of it. If we have food and covering, we should be content." There's the word again, content. Paul's writing, he's talking about this contentment.
The Missing Ingredient
So this is where I came up in my mind with the missing ingredient in the Christian life. Paul, so hang in there with me. Let's turn 1 Timothy 6:6 into an equation. Paul says godliness plus contentment equals great gain.
Now if we were to have a numerical value, if we said 9 plus 1 is 10, clearly value-wise the 9 is greater than the 1, but the 1 is essential for me to get to the 10. Godliness plus contentment is great gain.
If you go to a good church, and obviously redemption fits in that category for me, but if you go to Scottsdale Bible Church, I guarantee you that you're going to hear something about godliness, I'm going to say every week, but let's assume Jamie has an off week, and three out of four weeks you're going to hear something about godliness. And we define godliness this way, a consistent, genuine, authentic walk with God. You know Him, you walk with Him, you're going to hear it. And any decent Bible teaching church, even in a liberal church, you're going to hear something about godliness. You're going to hear godliness.
What you will almost never hear is a message on contentment. Yet if we step back to the equation mode, whatever great gain is, I need contentment to get there. I need godliness.
Defining Contentment
Webster defines contentment this way, happy enough with what one has without desiring something more or something different. So a synonym would be satisfied. I'm satisfied.
Now, the minute we hear that, and I've done this a lot, business environment, I've done it a lot in athletic environments, the minute I hear that, I think, well, wait a minute. If I'm satisfied, I'm going to lose my edge. If I don't have my drive, I was watching the golf channel this morning and the new world number one rankings are out. And I've already, I think Kepka's number one, I think. But there's a new number one, they're arguing about number one and they were interviewing somebody and they said, what are your goals for next year? I want to win a major. I want to win this.
Well, I'm afraid that if I'm satisfied, if you're a sales manager and you bring in your sales crew and you talk about contentment, that's not the way you manage. I work for a lot of guys. And here's, I had one guy and his whole management strategy was to keep the sales force in debt. Get a new car, get a new house, get a new, get a new, because if you had the debt, you'd work hard. That was a wholesale strategy. And I think it was the management model for a long time. Because you're afraid. And that's not true. If I'm satisfied, there's a relaxation, there's an ease that allows me to move through life.
The Need for Definition
Now, I'll tell you, to be satisfied, there's something you got to have. And here's what it is, it's definition. If you don't have some definition, in other words, what will it take?
I used to go, I went to Vegas before there was a Eiffel Tower there. I used to go in the old days. We would go and you'd wear, once the sun went down, we'd put on a suit and tie. I don't think that's going on anymore. And you could find a five dollar table anywhere. Well, I had this experience of every time I went out, I'm flying up with a friend and we're talking about what we're going to do and he's talking about his money and I said, do you have any sort of strategy? And he said, when I lose a thousand dollars, I'm going to quit. That's his strategy.
So I go by, we're at the Flamingo and he's shooting craps. And I go by and he's got chips everywhere. And I stop up, I said, how you doing? He said, I'm up three or four grand. I said, wow. But I don't want to watch him shoot craps. So I walk around and I walk over to Caesars and I walk back and he's at the bar. This might be too much of an earthy story for some of you. And I said, how'd you do? Well, this guy's goal oriented. He had a goal. What was his goal? He was going to lose a thousand dollars. Now it took him an extra hour to do it. But he said, I lost a grand. I said, wow. You were up three or four grand. He said, yeah, 3,500.
If we were on the plane flying up and I said to him, if you won 3,500 bucks, would you be happy? He would say, I'd be ecstatic. Here's the bullet point. He had what would have made him happy, but he never defined it. So it's just shooting in the dark. He would have been content, but it's never defined.
Solomon's Wisdom
Here's what Solomon says. You don't need to turn there, but make a note if you would. It's out of a key section. It's a parallel of this. It's Ecclesiastes 5:10-15. And Solomon says this. "Whoever loves money never has money enough. The more you have, the more you want. Whoever loves money or wealth is never satisfied with his income. The more you have, the harder it is to be satisfied." Rule of thumb, verse 11. "As goods increase, so do those who consume them. The more you have, the more people or government will come after you."
There was a lady, I don't know if you followed it, that won $394 million the
other day in the Iowa lottery. This poor gal came out—I don't know where she was from, What Cheer Iowa, I don't know—and she looked so overwhelmed. All I could think of is everybody in that town, including her pastor, is expecting to back up to her house and just start loading the bills into their car. The more you have, the more friends you have. And the harder it is to figure out who your friends are.
What does it benefit the owner except to feast his eye on him? The more you have, the more you realize it doesn't do you any good. Verse 12: "The sleep of the laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much. The abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep." The more you have, the more you worry. You worry about getting it. You worry about retaining it. You're worried about keeping it.
Verse 14 says wealth can be lost through misfortune. The more you have, the more you have to lose. Here's the key, and this is going to be key: Ecclesiastes 5:15—"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb. And so he comes as he departs." Came in with nothing, you leave with nothing. There's the perspective I need.
The World's False Promise of Happiness
So I have to get this definition around me. I have to understand that the whole world, plus just me myself says, "I'm going to be happy if I have more." If you just want to see this in human nature, you got the illustration last week. It's Halloween. It's trick or treat. These kids come, and I have my 12-year-old grandson pass out candy. It's interesting—if he's taking candy, he's grabbing. If he's passing it out, he's giving them one at a time. I don't know what that says, but it says something.
These kids come, and my grandkids—I have seven of them trick or treating in the neighborhood—they came back with bucket loads of stuff, bucket loads of stuff they can never eat. The idea was, "I'll take a little bit, I'll have a little bit more, and I'll make it happy." All it did was make them sick all night. "If I get more, I'll be happy."
There was an extensive study done a couple of years ago, and it said this: The average American has seen real income double, yet we have less happiness, more depression, more fragile relationships, less communal commitment, less vocational security, more crime, and demoralized children. You can't get a whole bunch more than we got.
The Key to Contentment
So Paul says—let's go back to the 1 Timothy passage—"Godliness plus contentment is great gain. Brought nothing in the world, take nothing out of it. If we have food and covering, with these, we should be content."
I'm talking a lot—this is now me formulating this. I'm going back 20 years. I'm teaching a lot on contentment. I'm at Forest Home. Ever been to Forest Home, some of you? I'm at Forest Home standing on the platform. I've got these three verses on the screen. I'm standing there reading them. All of a sudden, as I'm teaching the lesson, I saw the key.
Read it again. You've got it in front of you. "Godliness is actually a means of great gain when it's accompanied by contentment. Nothing in the world, we can't take anything out of it. If we have food and covering, with these, we should be content." Now, verse 7 is in the way. It breaks the flow. If I was writing a book, and I had an editor at Thomas Nelson, they would say, "You need to take out verse 7. You're talking about contentment in verse 6. You're talking about contentment in verse 8. Verse 7 is in the way."
Here's the problem with that. I don't have an editor at Thomas Nelson. I got God who wrote it. He dropped in verse 7. That day I'm standing there at Forest Home, all of a sudden, it hit me. The key to contentment is verse 7: "I came with nothing. I leave with nothing. None of this stuff is going to last." It's not saying it's not important. It's just saying it's not permanent.
Everything is Temporary
You get illustration after illustration after illustration. You got that car that you got, new car. Could be a Honda. Could be a Tesla. Could be whatever. You got it. You washed it. I remember, I don't know, 15 years ago, I got a new Volkswagen Passat, black. I'm going to really take care of this thing. I got a hand duster to dust it so I could keep the dust off of it. Susan bought me stacks of towels so I could hand wash it.
Well, I don't even like to take a shower, let alone give a shower to this car. So I washed it a couple of times. I dusted it. But it didn't take long before I said, "Well, I'm not going to do this. I'll find a hand car wash place. I'll go in there every Monday and get the car clean." Then it was every other Monday. Then it was, "Well, dusting this thing is a hassle."
I started with this. I said, "This is going to be it." But it started to break down. I'm going to buy gas for my car today. The last time I put gas in my car was March 1. I've been driving a lot now. But I'm back into this thing. It's not that the car's not important. It's just that it's temporary.
Verse 7 is the key to connect verse 6 and verse 8. This is all temporary, and it doesn't matter. Yet, we want everything to be superlative.
When Average Isn't Enough
Here's a conversation you've had. "I'm pregnant." "Oh, that's so cool. Do you want a boy or a girl?" "I don't care. Ten toes, ten fingers, that's all I care about." So they have this kid, ends up a girl. She wanted a girl, he wanted a guy, but nobody could say it. It's got ten fingers, but those ten fingers don't play the piano the way you wish they did. They don't throw the ball the way you wish they did. The ten toes are great, but they can't run a 4.5 forty.
When Sarah was in first grade, at the end of the year, they had the Iowa basic skills test. We got this envelope, came in June. I opened it up, looked at the scores, and she was essentially average in every area. I was absolutely devastated. So I had to sit her down and say, "Look, you're average."
Understanding the Root of Discontent
One of my daughters had trouble sleeping, and my mother-in-law suggested it might run in the family from my wife's side. I remember going to Susan and asking her why she cared about this. What difference did it make? Susan reminded me we had gone through this same pattern with potty training.
I was at work one day, and this guy had a daughter who was younger than Sarah, who was potty trained. Sarah wasn't. I came home and said to Susan, "You're doing something wrong with this kid. She's not potty trained." Susan asked, "Well, what difference does it make?" I said this other guy's daughter was already trained, and Susan replied, "I was working at Coal Banker. Is there anybody at Coal Banker who's not potty trained?" I said, "Well, we've got one guy in the apartment department that we're not sure about, but I don't know." She said, "Tom, it doesn't matter."
Here's what she said, and I've heard this a lot from people in my life: "You want it to all be about you." I wanted Sarah to be Margaret Thatcher and Elizabeth Elliott and Shania Twain, which would be kind of a weird combination, but cool. Why? This is going to get ugly now, because it's going to reveal your heart. I didn't want it for her. I wanted it for me. I wanted her to go and be a political leader and a spiritual leader and be Shania Twain, so they would say to her, "Who's been the most influential person in your life?" And she would say, "My mom, probably, but my dad. Oh, you should meet my dad. He's incredible."
The Selfish Motives Behind Our Desires
I'm convinced this will get really ugly. A lot of you want your kids to come to Christ just so you don't have the hassle of bailing them out of jail and dealing with addiction. Now, that's not true of everybody, but that begins to surface this issue.
It comes up here: "My kid's going to go to college." Why do you want your kid to go to college? Every time I ask the question, here's what I hear: "So they'll get a good job." I have not heard one person say, "I'm sending them to college so they'll learn something." I want them to get a good job. Why? Well, for all of those reasons.
Now, let me just keep pushing on this. Let me give you time. You only have to endure 11 more minutes.
Gift Envy in the Spiritual Realm
So now we get into the spiritual realm. We have a gentleman who leads worship at our Gateway campus. His name is Matthew Brazelton. Matthew's a great worship leader, I think. But his wife's incredible. She can play. She can sing. She has a stage presence. She's about this tall. She writes these amazing songs. I'm so jealous of her spiritual gift.
Now we bring it into the spiritual realm. Now we've got gift envy within the church. Teachers want to be musicians. Musicians want to be teachers. Nobody wants to give the service. But we've got all of these gifts, and we're not happy with them. It reveals my heart. It's the secret.
The Temporary Nature of Everything
How do I beat it? Verse 7 says we came with nothing and leave with nothing. I need to understand that whatever I have is temporary. Whatever it is.
One of the great things about the Internet is that all of this information is on there. Years ago, Larry introduced me to the teaching of a guy by the name of Ray Stedman. I love to listen to Stedman. Now, all his stuff is on the web. I think I put it on the resources part of the new website.
Stedman tells this story about being in Palo Alto. He's going to Boston to do a conference. He gets to Boston, and the best they can tell is his luggage went to Miami. So it's a Saturday. He's doing this conference Saturday night, Sunday church. He doesn't have a suit, which in that day was very important.
He's walking, and he sees in the window a Navy suit. So he walks in, and he doesn't really realize it until he gets in, that he's in a pawn shop. He says to the guy, "Hey, here's my circumstance, I need a suit." The guy asks, "What size are you?" He says, "44 long." The guy says, "Well, that's a 42 short, but come on in the back room."
The Dead Man's Suit
So he goes in the back room, and here's a whole rack of Navy suits in this pawn shop. He asks, "Why do you have all these suits?" The guy says, "Well, there's a mortuary that went out of business. Somehow we don't care how we look when we're alive, but when we're dead, we want to look good. So he had all these Navy suits, we bought them."
The pawn shop owner says, "Here's a 44 long, and it needs some adjustment. There's not a problem. Right around the corner is a tailor. Go in there, they'll fit it and cuff it." So Saturday night, he gets showered, gets all ready, puts on his suit, gets his stuff, starts to put it in the pockets. This is a suit made for a dead man. There are no pockets.
It just illustrates this point. If I understand that, all of a sudden it gets easier.
Perspective on Current Events
Here's what I knew intuitively about this election: that on Wednesday morning, God would still be in control, and Alabama would still be unbeatable. Those are the two things I knew about Wednesday morning. Sandy doesn't care, or she cares differently. She doesn't watch it.
Every time I start talking about whatever it was, she says, "That's cool, that really gives you something to pray about." I say, "Well, you pray. I'm not going to watch Fox News. I'm going to watch MSNBC." That's the ticket in all this.
The Danger of Wanting Riches
Now, here's the other side of it. Once you understand it's never going to be enough, Paul says in verse 9 of 1 Timothy, those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish things. He's saying, be careful about this. Be careful about this love of money. You're going to do stuff you would never do otherwise. You're going to fall for schemes and tricks. It's never going to be enough. I'm always going to want a little bit more.
Now he shifts, and I printed it out on your sheet. Verse 17: "Instruct those who are rich." Because once you put a lid on your dreams, it's amazing how much you can accumulate.
When Sandy and I got married, we did some serious financial planning. Not that I didn't have it serious before, but it's totally different. We had to sit down, and we had a good financial planner who would ask us a lot of tough questions. Well, Sandy, you have your daughter. Tom, you have your daughters. Do we want to treat them the same? Are you comfortable with this?
Ultimately, the question's going to be, what's the number? How much is enough? You wrestle with that, and you grapple with it, and you put it on paper, and you fund it, and here's what I want you to see. Once you've done that, accumulating above and beyond that becomes hoarding. Because you've already said, that's enough. So make that number high. That's enough.
The Problem of Defining Rich
Instruct those who are rich. What's the problem in verse 17? Well, it's the definition of rich. I've discovered we want people to think we're rich, but we don't want the burden that comes with it.
So I'm with a guy, and he's one of these guys who wants me to know he's got a lot of money, but can't figure out how to tell me. So he tries to communicate it through his watch, and his pen, and his car. And so one day, and he's talking about stuff, and it's killing him because he's waiting for me to ask. And he said, I just went through this thing, and my net worth right now is about ten million dollars.
Now, I don't know, to some of you, that's not a lot. To others of you, that's huge. Seems like a lot of money. And I said to him, that must be a burden to be rich. And he said, I'm not rich. I realized that when we talk about the burden of finance, we define rich as anybody who has more money than me.
The Dangers of Wealth
Because He says if you're rich, I want you to do a couple things in verse 17. If you're rich in this present world, don't be conceited. Or fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches.
There's a tendency when you have stuff to think somehow you did it. You give the pseudo, well, God's really blessed me. But then you say, why wouldn't He? Look at the rest of you. Are they going to bless you? He blessed me. Why? Well, I'm a little smarter. I'm a little wiser. The conceit that comes with stuff. Everybody's telling you you're special. You need to write a book. You need to hold a seminar. You need to speak. You need to go to Vegas to the national conference.
The uncertainty of riches. Two things about this. The uncertainty is they're like a greased pig. You can have stuff and it can be gone like that. It can be gone in a flash. Or, and this is even bigger, the uncertainty of riches, you think if you have them, you'll be happy, and you aren't. You trust them to do what only God can do.
The Antidote to Materialism
You instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but fix their hope on God who supplies all these things. And verse 18, to be rich in good works. To be generous. You should be a giving machine.
Here's an antidote for materialism. Give it away. The more I hold, the more I hang on to it. How do I break that cycle? I begin to give. And you need to do that with discipline. You need to find causes all around.
This is a time of year where you'll start in another month, your mailbox will start to fill up with year-end giving needs. And I know how many people see them as a burden. It's amazing to me how much God's doing around the world and what a privilege you have to be part of it.
Contentment in Physical Aging
So if I'm going to finish strong, and let me add just one word on aging, it's to be content in the physical condition you're in. You're not going to be able to do physically what you used to do. The athlete loses a step. You lose a step. Every old guy I talk to when I say, how's your golf game? Every one of them say, not hitting it as far as I used to.
So that breeds discontent. So now I'm going to buy a new driver, the new twisted inverted face driver. Well, I'm not hitting it as far. I'm not putting as well. I don't think as fast. I can't read like I used to. If it gets a little complicated, I'm done. I'm reading the same sentence over and over again.
I started a book the other day and finally got a piece of paper to write the name of the characters down. Because I can't remember, I've got a guy married to a gal that I don't know who's doing this thing. It's to be content. God designed, this is hard, but we're done. God designed aging to be part of your life as well.
We think He designed us, oh, we're young, we'll have dreams, we'll have aspirations. He designed you to deteriorate. Now, sin did that. I got it. But it's just where you are. There's almost not a day go by that I don't have somebody tell me somebody from their family or friends in hospice. I hear it all the time. It's just part of the world. I need to be content with this.
Keeping Competition in Perspective
I can tell you, and if you can get this to your kids, to keep the competitive drive alive, I grabbed this because I think of Yale, but to keep the competitive drive alive and yet to put it in perspective. It's not that this stuff isn't important. It's just that it's temporary. If I'm looking for the championship to make me happy, it's only going to work for a month or two.
You can be salesperson of the year and speaking at the national convention, but I'm telling you, on January 1st, they're going to send you a sheet that says you're at zero. Here's quota. You missed it. It's just the way it is. I'm not saying don't make quota. I'm just saying making quota isn't going to make you permanently satisfied. That comes through a growing relationship with Christ.
Next week, we talk about something that's one of the great easy things, but it's one of the biggest challenges is the Christian life is filled with freedom, but that presents all sorts of challenges. We'll look at it next week.
Father, take this, and it indeed is a secret in our life. Help us learn to be content and to be satisfied. God, we ask You to change our heart, change our desires.
competitive edge. Just put it in perspective. Let us be satisfied with the life You've given us, the spouse You've given us, the singleness that we have, the kids we have. God, ultimately, we're going to find our satisfaction in You and You alone. God, do that. We pray it in Christ's name, Amen.
Have a great week. I'll see you next week.