Finding The Elusive

You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:2b-3

Contentment is an elusive creature, and something than many people spend years trying to find. The world marketplace has a continuous conveyor belt of latest-gadgets and must-have things. They are advertised in such a way as to make us think that our lives would be made easier with this simple purchase. They reel us in with convincing arguments and pictures of other people living their best life. We begin to think that maybe we do need this wonderful thing. When the seed of need is planted, it grows into want and then blossoms into the desire to have it now.

James is forthright in his summation of people’s behaviour back then, but the reality is that it’s an ongoing problem. There are children quarrelling with parents because they won’t buy them the item they want, and couples quarrelling with each other because the one isn’t giving the other what they need. Employees arguing with bosses over promotions not given and students appealing for grades not received. Fighting and quarrelling over what is coveted but not obtained. This is the devil’s game and he plays it well.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

When our wants take over and we look to the world to fulfil our desires, we are telling God that He isn’t enough for us. Jesus tells us to be on our guard against coveting, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). God attends to our every need, fully and completely. He never takes His attention off His creation. He clothes the fields with flower and shrub, and every bird is fed. God’s bounty of provision is generously available to us; contentment is simply a conversation away.

The only things worth coveting are those that are found in God and in His glorious kingdom.