Appreciate What God has Done and Provided

Appreciate What God has Done and Provided

 

Haggai 1: 5-6 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

 

It is a sad state of the human condition to never feel truly satisfied. It seems that we are constantly looking at what others have and wanting more of what we feel we lack. This stems from the infrequency of which we examine what we do have. It is a certain lack of appreciation of what God has already provided for us that leads us to want more than He has given us. We can easily forget the lessons from the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Church at Philippi:

 

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

 

We can forget because we are covetous by nature. We go beyond what we need and instead demand what we want; what we desire. Perhaps the greatest story of this covetousness comes from the life of King David, described as a man after God's heart. In the book of 2Samuel we see David rise to the throne of Israel. God has bestowed upon him a great promise that his house and kingdom will endure forever. David has one successful military campaign after another and had all that he could have wanted. Until he saw the one thing he could not have, Bathsheba. One evening the bible tells us, David saw Bathsheba bathing. When he sought to find out who she was, he discovered she was married to Uriah the Hittite. Forgetting all that God had provided already for him and everything he had, David took Bathsheba anyway and slept with her. His sin of covetousness gave way to adultery. When he discovered that Bathsheba was pregnant, he tried to cover his sin up. He tried to trick Uriah into sleeping with Bathsheba so that he would assume the baby was his (Uriah was off fighting in war). When Uriah refused because he felt it would be wrong while his comrades were still fighting the war, David tried to get him drunk to succumb, but to no avail. When all else failed, David instead sought to cover his sin up be eliminating Uriah the Hittite. His sin of covetousness gave way to adultery, which now gave way to murder. He had Uriah placed on the front line of fighting, where soon he would fall in combat. David then took Bathsheba to be his own wife.

 

David had everything he could have needed. He was king, well respected, mighty in battle, and rich beyond measure. Yet when he saw something he wanted but could not have, he crossed the line. Everything God had already provided for him was not enough anymore. The result of this sin would be the undoing of David's kingdom. God would send the Prophet Nathan to tell David a story about a poor man who only had one little ewe lamb which he had raised as part of his family. In this story there was also a rich man that had many sheep and cattle but when a traveler came to visit, the rich man killed the poor man's little ewe lamb to present to the traveler instead of one of the many of his flock. The bible tells us that David burned with anger over this rich man because he had no pity and here is the response of the Prophet Nathan:

 

Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.' - 2Samuel 12: 7-10

 

Note what God is saying to David first. He is reminding him all that He had done for him. He anointed him King, delivered him from the hands of Saul, gave him his masters house and wives, and even the very house of Israel and Judah. Then God amazingly says, "If all this had been too little, I would have given you even more!" Can you imagine beloved? That is what God is saying to us today as well. Look at all that I have given you already and if that is still too little, I will give you even more!