Subject: Contentment - Proverbs 13

Proverbs 13:25
The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, But the stomach of the wicked is in need.

Subject:  Contentment

Imagine to have enough to "satisfy" your appetite? How is that even possible? Our appetites are like empty pits and to satisify them would be beyond miraculous. To prove the point look at the second line of the proverb: The wicked are still "hungry" and never "satisfied." What we learn from this proverb is that satisfaction is not based upon human terms but is a spiritual problem. The lost, the wicked, the unbeliever has no way to satisfy his/her hunger as they don't know why they are hungry and don't know what they are looking for. The "righteous" are satisfied in their appetite because once they come to God their appetite changes. They are now hungry for righteousness. So, if you are given a heart that is righteous the desires of your heart are righteousness. When your desires are not met as you grow in Christ it is because your hungers are wrong. Blessed are those to who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled (Matthew 5).

Contentment and satisfaction are an illusion to the unbeliever.   The world offers much and delivers little.   The latest ad you read, heard, or visually received promises that the object, commodity or material good will produce in you or for you something satisfying.   And it does ... for a few weeks or months.   It then gets old and we need a new model or addition.    Being content with what we have is something only learned by the righteous.   Only those in faith of Christ's finished work can know true satisfcation and true contentment (see Philippians 4:11).  In the above proverb we see Solomon's take on satisfaction and contentment.  Before we read it and dismiss it, however, we need to remember that Solomon had so much gold he had to cover it with more gold and ivory.   He was the riches man of his time.   Yet, he knew enough about contentment that nothing he owned would provide it.  It was only provided by righteousness by faith in the coming Messiah.   Those who are wicked shop, buy, own and possess all the way to repeating that.   They get what their eyes desire only to realize their eye is never satisfied.  Believers can purchase the same thing that non-believers purchase and can find (or should find) satisfaction in not having the thing or having it.   True righteousness finds its satisfaction in a relationship with a risen God and not with a thing they can purchase.