Over the years, I’ve been asked many times if I fly first class when I travel. I reply, “I fly first class, regardless of where I sit.” My seat on an airplane can change my comfort level, but it cannot change my sense of inward significance. I’m not more important or more fulfilled sitting in first class than I am sitting in economy class.
Most people understand this concept on the surface. Few would say anything different. Yet it is obvious that many still place material possessions and natural achievements above the true riches of life.
Competition drives many people to compare themselves with others to determine if they are really “okay.” Some can’t stand it if they see someone with a bigger diamond ring or a more expensive car than they have. For people who fit in this category, success is measured by a purely natural point of view rather than by the measure God uses. It could almost be called “the plague of discontentment.”
Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. We are expected to increase in our lives. Being satisfied in God doesn’t mean we are content to allow our lives to remain as they are today. The difference is that God wants His people to be continually growing on the inside and His Kingdom to be continually advancing. Jesus is our perfect Example. Without question, He is completely satisfied. He has neither needs nor insecurities. Nevertheless, Jesus isn’t satisfied with the areas of our lives that don’t reflect His highest will for us. He therefore continues to work within us by His Spirit to help us walk more in line with His thinking, His abundance, and His values. Because He wants so much more for us, He stays intimately involved in our lives.
For example, the Lord has promised that He will give us the desires of our hearts. Consequently, He expects us to have desires.
A word of the Lord was spoken to King David through the prophet Nathan that provides great insight regarding this truth. This word came to David after he sinned by having Uriah killed to cover his own sin with Bathsheba. The Lord said to David, “I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!” (2 Samuel 12:8).
Although David had already received a great deal from the Lord, He was willing to do far more for David than what He had already done. The Lord wanted David to know, just as He wants us to know, that He was ready to pour out abundance beyond measure upon him. But David failed to receive the full measure of God’s blessing because he wanted what he could not have. David wasn’t content in the Lord, and his attempt to fulfill his wanton desires nearly cost him his life. Had David kept his eyes on God instead of letting them drift to young Bathsheba, he would have experienced God’s abundance in a far greater measure in his life.
In the same way, God is always at work to help us experience far more of His abundance than we currently have. As Third John 2 (AMP) says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers.”
Even in times of trouble when hardship surrounds us, we can remain satisfied. Psalm 37:18,19 proclaims this: “The Lord knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.”
In Psalm 81:13-16, the psalmist makes it clear that when we commit ourselves to seek God’s ways and listen to His counsel, we can stay above the conflict and the fate others experience as a result of their disobedience:
Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.When we are uncluttered by competition or covetousness, we can hear God’s voice more easily. Peaceful contentment grows into a strong confidence in Him as both our Provider and our provision. Our hearts become single and focused on Him, and we are able to say as Paul did: “I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.” (Phil. 4:12-13 TEV)
(Ps. 81:13-16)
Dennis Burke Ministries
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