URC Daily Devotion Tuesday 7 October 2025

1 Timothy 6: 2b – 10

Teach and urge these duties. Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness,  is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions,  and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it;  but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.  But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Reflection
‘If we have food and clothing, we will be content with those’. Contentment is highly underrated but how different a world we would live in if our aim was to be, and to help others be, content. Instead so much of social media, advertising and commerce is inclined, and even designed, to foster discontent. ‘Got a new phone? Well the newer version will be released soon and will be so much slicker – wouldn’t you rather have that?’, ‘That’s a nice pair of trousers but orange and tight fitting is so “last year”!’ 

Some clothing companies deliberately change their range with such frequency that the ‘outdated’ textiles are just dumped, polluting the environment. And do we really need a new, faster car that would get us to the shops three minutes quicker if it were not for the pesky speed limit? Are we not trying to reduce emissions, not increase them? 

Paul’s letter to TImothy could just have easily have been written for today. God must sigh to witness the societal greed that is not only destroying creation but stealing our souls, leading to division and poverty and impeded mental health. We had a taste of a slightly different life during Covid-19 and swore to learn lessons from it, but within weeks of lockdown lifting, people felt they ‘had earned a holiday abroad’ after the ‘deprivation’ they had ‘endured’. Oh, to be content with the multitude of good, simple things we enjoy – our daily bread. 

We comfort eat and indulge in retail therapy to ease the emptiness of failing to take comfort in what we have, sufficient food and clothing and the grace of a loving saviour who claims us as God’s own. 

Prayer
Generous and gracious God, 
grant us a sense of contentment.
Take our striving, our yearning, our ever wanting more, 
and replace them with appreciation, with giving, with Godliness. 
What more could we need but you? 
As we pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread’, 
help us truly recognise that this is indeed enough. 
Make us content, Lord. Amen.