"And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content." (1 Timothy 6:8)

Few Christians take these words seriously, yet they are as truly the Word of God as John 3:16. They tell us to be satisfied with food and covering. That word "covering" includes a roof over our heads as well as the clothes we wear. In other words, we should be content with the minimum essentials and put everything above that into the work of the Lord.

The man who has contentment has something that money cannot buy. E. Stanley Jones said, "Everything belongs to the man who wants nothing. Having nothing, he possesses all things in life, including life itself… He is rich in the fewness of his wants rather than in the abundance of his possessions."

Years ago when Rudyard Kipling spoke to a graduating class at McGill University, he warned the students against putting a great premium on material wealth. He said, "Some day you'll meet a man who cares for none of these things and then you'll realize how poor you are."

"The happiest state of a Christian on earth seems to be that he should have few wants. If a man has Christ in his heart, heaven before his eyes, and only as much of temporal blessings as is just needful to carry him safely through life, then pain and sorrow have little to shoot at; such a man has little to lose" (William C. Burns).

This spirit of contentment seems to have characterized many of God's giants. David Livingston said, "I am determined not to look upon anything that I possess except as in relation to the Kingdom of God." Watchman Nee wrote, "I want nothing for myself; I want everything for the Lord." And Hudson Taylor said that he enjoyed "the luxury of having few things to care for."

To some, the idea of contentment means the lack of drive and ambition. They picture the contented person as a drone or a freeloader. But that is not godly contentment. The contented Christian has plenty of drive and ambition, but they are directed toward the spiritual, not the material. Rather than being a freeloader, he works so that he can give to those who are in need. In Jim Elliot's words, the contented person is the one for whom God has "loosed the tension of the grasping hand."