As we pray and desire good things, blessings from God, we must do so in patience and trust, knowing we make our requests to a loving Father and being thankful for his sustenance through our dark valleys. With God as our friend we can be content in this world while we travel toward the Celestial City.

Contentment doesn’t seem to be trending in our culture. Every television show, commercial, and advertisement is encouraging us to get more, telling us we deserve better, and prodding us that we can’t make do with the old version. And if we follow their advice and get the next best thing, our lives will be incredibly transformed for the better. Unfortunately, because of sin all human beings are plagued with a restlessness that should open our eyes to the fact that we are missing something in our lives. So, we fall prey to the encouragement to desire more, hoping to fill a void that exists in our lives.

Humans Were Made for a Glorious Purpose—To Dwell With God, Serve God, and Be Friends of God

In God’s grace, however, this void is not fillable with the material trinkets of this world. In John Bunyan’s allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Vanity Fair refers to the preoccupation with material goods of this world, which in Bunyan’s story is a fair that is held year-round to entice pilgrims (believers) on their way to the Celestial City (i.e., heaven).

The temptations found in Vanity Fair cannot give what man truly needs. Humans were made for a glorious purpose—to dwell with God, serve God, and be friends of God. Only when a person has become a friend of God through faith in Jesus Christ can he or she begin to find contentment in this life as they keep their eyes on their heavenly home. Paul writes,

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (1 Tim. 6:6-8)

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