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

There are so many lessons to be learned from Genesis 3:1-6. But I had a new one (at least for me) brought to my attention by my friend, Dan, who taught our Sunday School class recently.

In Genesis 3:5, Satan tells Eve that she will “be like God” once she eats the forbidden fruit. By dangling the carrot of godhood before Eve, Satan tempted Eve with the same prize that he himself sought before his fall from Heaven. Many teach that the quest for godhood is undergirded by the sin of pride, and it is. But the flip side of that coin, as Dan pointed out, is the sin of discontentment.

Pride tells us that we are worth more than we are. Discontentment tells us that we ought to have more than we have. In many cases, these two sins exist apart from each other. But, often, they coexist, fueling each other into a hotter and hotter flame. For Eve, discontentment screamed that there was a higher level of understanding that was better than the one she possessed, and she longed for it. Pride taught her that she absolutely deserved to have that understanding, and it taught her that God had no right to keep it to Himself. Together, these two sins fed off of each other, and Eve was drawn to the fire like a moth to the flame.

Yes, we need to be humble.  But, just as importantly, we need to be content.  Even a humble person can become discontented, and that dissatisfaction can drive the humble person to make decisions that he or she will regret for years to come.  The key to avoiding the trappings of discontentment is to trust the reality that God wants the best for us, God knows the best for us, and God is able to deliver the best to us. When discontentment drives us to pursue our own plans in our own power and in our own timing, we bottleneck God’s best, and we will continue to stymie God’s work in our lives until we learn to be satisfied with whatsoever state we are in.  Once God finds contentment in our character, He will resume the process of giving us His best.

The desire for more of what God wants for us is perfectly holy. But the desire for more of what pleases our flesh and our pride is the bait at the end of Satan’s hook. Don’t take the bait.

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