If we fail to understand and come to rest in God’s abundant provision, but instead find ourselves operating in the world’s economy of scarcity, then we are always perilously close to idolatry. When it seems there is never quite enough, when we always have the desire for a little bit more, we have stumbled into the sin of greed, which Paul says is idolatry. It is the worship of the thing created rather than the Creator.

When our worship of God is turned on its head and we seek to follow a path that runs from blessing to blessing in a search for more, the inevitable result is a spirit of idolatry. God is good only when the quality and quantity of his blessings meet our expectations. We approach him with a laundry list of wants and an endless set of demands. We value him because he does for us, because he gives us things. The things are what we seek, what we love, what we worship.

Because we have not surrendered ourselves as living sacrifices, laying all that we are on the altar before him, putting to death all that belongs to our earthly nature, we continue to be conformed to this world and, as such, find ourselves caught up in the world’s economy of scarcity. There is never enough, so we live in fear, always grasping for more. That “always grasping for more” is greed, which, again, says Paul, is idolatry.

Jesus tells us our lives do not consist in the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15). God’s economy of abundance is not based on an abundance of created things (although creation consistently overwhelms our capacity to grasp its size, complexity, diversity and opulence). Rather, the true abundance we are promised is found and founded on God himself. As magnificent as it may be, all of creation pales into insignificance in comparison to the glory of its creator.

God’s plan is certainly that we will be engaged in useful, productive, creative work (we are created in his image, after all), but that work, and the product of that work, no matter how Godly or important, cannot be what fulfills us or sustains us. The source of our completion, of wholeness, of contentment, must be God alone. He must be the singular object of our worship. When Christ is your life, then all the rest falls into place. We are able to view everything as the provision of his blessing. We trust him to be in control and to be able to work all things together for our good.

Once God is loved and worshiped “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27), then every act becomes an act of worship, a demonstration of obedience and sacrifice, a song of adoration and praise. Every circumstance, every situation, is made sacred. Our lives, offered as living sacrifices, are made holy in this spiritual worship. Such worship is pleasing to God and our reasonable service, but it also allows us to discover how good and perfect his will for us actually is.

The grasping sin of greed is so ingrained into our thinking and being that we scarce can understand the apostle Paul when he reveals to us the secret of contentment. “I know what it is to have plenty,” he says, “and I know what it is to be in want.” (Philippians 4:13) Many of us are in a constant state of “want.” We want things. We want relationships. We want power, pleasure, and prestige. We live our lives with that dull ache of desire, often undefined, wordlessly wishing for that elusive “something” that will satisfy. Even as we live lifestyles unimaginable to emperors and potentates in all the centuries that have preceded us, extravagant in our possessions, comfort and well-being, we find it difficult to say “I know what it is to have plenty.” Greed, etched into our lives, masquerading as the holy pursuit of God’s blessings has left us discontented, diminished and disconnected from the source. We have plenty, but are in a near constant state of want.

What is Paul’s secret of contentment?  “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Contentment comes not because of plenty, nor from lack of want, but because contentment is a gift from Jesus, who in himself meets our every need.

The abundant life that Jesus promises begins, surprisingly, with death.  When you die to yourself, to this world, to all of your own evil desires and cravings, then the endless abundance of God’s blessing is yours.  If all you want is Jesus, you will find that Jesus is always more than enough.  And when you come to know him – the fellowship of his suffering and the power of his resurrection – all those things, all those idols, lose their value and appeal.  Like Paul, we can say, “Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him…” (Philippians 3:7-8)

Here you will find grace and peace in abundance. Here you will find that “his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:2-4). 

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”  (Colossians 3:1-3)

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