But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content (1 Timothy 6:6-8).

My daughter flew in this past Saturday for Christmas. Last night her boyfriend flew in at midnight, who will most likely become family in the near future. This family reunion has been wonderful since we do not get to see our family face-to-face very often.

We are thankful for tools like facetime and technology that our kids can video the grandkids and post them to our shared network so that we can see them engaging life and growing up. This is always a reminder how fast life is rushing by and how old we are getting so quickly.

But it is always a reminder of the nature of life. We brought nothing into this world, and we will not take anything with us. All our efforts to accumulate so much stuff only to realize that we take none of it with us when we die. We tend to value the things that we cannot take with us and take for granted the things that are far more valuable, like family and relationships.

There are two things that Paul mentions that are critical for us to value between the time we come into this world and when we leave it. We might miss out on many things that we might long for wandering this earth for the time frame the Lord has appointed for us. We like money, elaborate shelters, the nice things we can accumulate over a lifetime of effort. But the danger is putting in enormous amounts of energy and effort for things that do not last and very little effort into the things that do.

The first thing is godliness. Being transformed into the image of Christ is the primary reality check from the internal struggles inside. Our inner turmoil and brokenness often drives finding self-worth in gathering excessive amounts of stuff. It is a status symbol, a sign of honor in our culture. The measure of success is how much stuff can we get our hands on. God’s solution to our inner struggle is the sufficiency and fullness of Christ in us. When we allow all the fullness of His presence to saturate our inner being, we will discover the secret to life – godliness.

The second is contentment. Christmas is one of those “giving times of the year” where we express love by giving gifts. Most of us realize that this is not the true spirit of Christmas, but we enjoy our cultural practices. Nevertheless, it is easy to “get used to this” since we have it all in front of us.

Paul spoke twice about being content. The principle was godliness but godliness with contentment. The second time Paul defines where the basis for contentment rests. With food and clothing we will be content. We are not chasing after anything more that having our basic needs met. We are perfectly content with just those things.

I pray as you step into the New Year you will discover godliness with great contentment. There are lots of things that will catch your heart; there are only a few that really matter.

Pastor Brad

Happy New Year!