Contentment and Calling By Elizabeth Kroeker

1 Timothy 6:6-12, 14-16
6Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
​
9Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

11But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession before many witnesses.

14Keep this commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which God will bring about in His own time--He who is blessed and the only Sovereign One, the King of kings and Lord of lords.16He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

In this passage the perspective that God wants us to have, and which will bring contentment, is vastly different from natural/worldly desires.  The key is found in the brief prayer in verses 15b and 16.  Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, bursts into praise of our glorious King of kings.  To really be content, to be able to fight the good fight and flee from foolish and harmful desires and pursue godliness, we need to really know our Creator and find in Him our identity and purpose. To know Him and grow in our relationship, and then confess this before witnesses in our life as well as words, is our calling.

One of the ways to know God more deeply is to learn what He has revealed about Himself in Scripture and to pray through those Scriptures that the Holy Spirit will make them come alive.  There are more than 100 names of God recorded in the Bible and each one reveals something precious and amazing about our majestic, loving King and Lord.  How marvelous that He who called each star into being by name, and who knew each of our names and every hair we would ever have on our head before anything was created, loves us enough to die for us! He wants to redeem us so we can be in His eternal family.  How utterly glorious!