“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:14-15
All sin begins with desire. Seemingly benign desires may be perverted; the desire to eat may become the sin of gluttony, and the desire to procreate may become fornication, adultery, etc. Desires are complicated in that they lead to other desires. The desire of hunger produces a desire to seek food and go to the bakery where I desire to eat a donut; one donut turns into six, and now I have desires about what to do about eating those six donuts. This is just a small sampling of the many desires we have. We have desires related to work, family, government, church, other individuals, etc. Being overwhelmed with desires produces great stress and leads to the desire to sooth the stress, but this does not satisfy.
What is needed is contentment: being satisfied with who we are. Contentment is not trying to be something that we are not. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we carry nothing out. But if we have food and raiment let us be therewith content.” Focusing on Jesus and who He is helps us to be content because He is all we really need; He is the standard for who we were created to be and what we truly are. This is godliness, and being satisfied with that delivers us from a world of our own destructive desires.
