Stepping Stones: Why More Isn’t Enough

Transformational Thought

Yesterday, we looked at the envy trap Satan sets to pull us away from God, derailing us off the track to Christ-likeness. We hope you have been learning to be more content with God and what He gives you each day. Today, let’s look at why we are so susceptible, over and over, to this envy trap.

I remember my first paycheck helping a roofer in middle school. It seemed like so much money … $5.00/hr. in high school, then $7.00/hr. in college. During med school I had many bills and made $16,000/yr. parking cars to pay for rent and food … and that seemed like so much. In the third and fourth years of med school, I would work 80-100 hrs/wk for NO pay. So when I started residency, I was $108,000 in debt, hadn’t had a paycheck in 2 years, moved to California with 2 suitcases of clothes to my name, and was flat broke.

That first month, I made $3000. It seemed like a zillion. I felt so rich, thought it would last forever. I believed I was in financial heaven. I was able to buy a TV and bed, and eat out occasionally. Six months later I was amazed at how little I had at the end of the month. It wasn’t enough. Residency year 2, I got a raise to $39,000/yr. Wow, I was rich again. But in 8 months, I started to get the feeling it wasn’t enough. In year 4, I was making $45,000 and moonlighting to almost double that. Again, I felt rich. But in about 10 months I needed more. How could $36,000 seem so great, yet $90,000 for the same lifestyle not be enough? Our flesh is never satisfied.

You see, once we hit our goal, our nature is to reset or recalibrate to a higher setting. We need more to get the same satisfaction. In addictions, we call it developing a tolerance, needing more of the drug to get the same effect. Needing more as time goes on happens in many areas … money… space in a kitchen or yard … alcohol or caffeine … asking for more out of marriage now than when we got engaged … job satisfaction … needing 2, 3, or 4 cars. Our amnesia regarding realistic settings and the recalibration phenomena dangerously dangle us right over the envy trap. What we really deserve … is nothing. That’s why God’s grace is so amazing.

Today, examine your needs meter. Have your settings been calibrated much higher than really necessary? Have your wants turned into needs? That is the flesh and Satan working in concert. Evaluate where God would set your needs meter, or how Jesus set His. Examine and make a plan to back off one of your wants a bit today. Replace that with some time in God’s word or prayer time talking and listening to Him. Your decision, choose well.

Prayer
Dear Father, Thanks for meeting my needs. Help me understand the difference between real needs and desires. Teach me to be satisfied and thankful for how You provide for my needs, instead of saying “thanks, but I need more.” Help me focus on what I have and not on what I don’t have. God, You are so awesome and Your design is perfect, help me be transformed through Godly decision-making, not conformed to this world and mentality by my fleshly decisions. In Christ’s perfectly calibrated offering and name; and all God’s children say - AMEN!

The Truth
The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" And Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
Luke 4:3-12

But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Genesis 3:4-7