A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 27: 20. "Never Enough"

Proverbs 27: 20     Hell and Destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Proverbs 27:20.  It’s never enough. 

People, animals, plants, and stars consume and when they are incapable of consuming more they are consumed themselves.

Even in humanity, made by God the Creator in His image, the engine of consumption churns, hungering for more---- more cupcakes & compliments, more gossip & gadgets, more attention & income, more sex & more shoes.  Tastes change, we look at different things but the eyes   hunger for whatever objects they view.

The lust of the eyes to have, the spirit of covetousness to take , the greedy heart that wants to be higher than----it’s a black hole that can grow but that can never be filled.

We seem to be a species incapable of saying and truly meaning, “O.K.  I’m good.  I don’t need anything more.”

And yeah.  I understand that we need, actually do physically need---the next meal, the next glass of water, another coat for winter.  I know that my desire for my wife is intentionally built into me by God.  I can even almost comprehend the explanation my wife gives for why she “needs” so many pairs of black shoes.

I’m not telling you, “Want nothing and you’ll have all.”  I’m telling you that the Bible says over and over that you can’t get or give enough stuff to fill the hole that you have inside.  (Ecclesiastes 5: 10, 11; James 4: 1-3; Matthew 6: 25-27)

Give people enough money that they don’t have to work for the rest of their lives and they’ll spend the rest of their lives working on how to spend the money.

Offer to do for someone every sexual favor he/she requests and they’ll stay up trying to think of what you haven’t done yet. 

You cannot bribe someone into happiness.  You cannot acquire enough things for yourself that you feel safe and satisfied.

Whoever dies with the most toys----is consumed by death just like whoever died without any.

James 4: 2     You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3     You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

We want it all, but no matter how much we accumulate, our accumulation never equals ALL.   Therefore, we are never satisfied.

Ecclesiastes 5: 10     He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase.  

God, however, actually, literally does have it all.

Matthew 6: 33     But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

If you link yourself to God then you connect to the only source capable of satisfying you in a complete way.  Once you find contentment in God, you become capable of living in a consumer universe without being obsessed with consuming. 

You can have and not lust.  You can obtain without murdering and coveting.  You can ask the right way for the right things not  so you can spend it on your selfish pleasures but so you can use it for the glory of God who is the source, the only source of contentment.

Jesus has defeated death and hell (1 Corinthians 15: 26, 54-57; Revelations 20: 14; .  Therefore, in Christ, we don’t have to live like those insatiable elements.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6)

You can actually be satisfied ------ with Jesus.

----- Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

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Hall Memorial CME Church
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Montgomery, AL 36116