Admire or Desire?

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
Philippians 4:11

What do you have in life?
What do you want in life?

We all have a public list and a private list…we’re human after all, and the flesh has constant desires.

The right answer is to raise our pious noses and declare that “we only want what God desires for our lives.” That may be your sincere desire, but you’ll still be tempted to admire and desire things in life.

We all want things.
I passed a 5.0 Ford Mustang GT on the way to work yesterday, and it turned my head. He was driving my favorite sports car. That’s the car I would buy if I had “fun money”. I eyed the kid driving it with slight envy.

I wanted to get out at the stop light, walk over to his window, and say, “You ground the gears shifting from 2nd to 3rd about a quarter mile back. It sounded terrible. Let me drive it for 10 minutes and show you a few things.”

Would I have done that?
No, it’s not my job to steward other people’s belongings…But I did look at that gorgeous car with great admiration.

God taught me something very important in life many years ago: it’s better to admire and not desire. I can go to a car show and see beautiful sports cars, and that’s good enough for me.
Many people become fixated and obsessed on the bigger, better, and best things in life. “Stuff” becomes their focus and idol.

Satan loves to wave shiny jewels in our faces and get us lusting for them.
Those jewels can be anything that caters to the flesh: Cars, toys, food, wealth, pleasure…for some, the latest cell phone version is all it takes for them to grow discontent with the phone they already have.

Are YOU discontent with what you have in life?
What are you really craving?

By the time I made it to work, I had forgotten about that GT Mustang. I prayed with my wife on the phone, thanked God for His blessings of the day, (including our simple cars and safe travels) and went inside to work.

Want to be content?
Count your blessings, thank God for them, and learn to “admire” nicer things without that burning “desire” to have them.
If you struggle with discontentment, ask God to teach you how to be content.

After all, Paul said that he “learned…to be content.”
So, who taught Him that?
The Master. Learn from Him today.