‘THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER!’

  Photo by mi-nu-NcMiOehj-on unsplash.

Look at that silly horse!  Looks like he even broke a fence board to get to the grass on the other side.  ‘The grass is always greener on the other side.’  It’s the same grass!  There’s a message here somewhere, don’t you think?

I once heard a sermon called, ‘He got what he wanted, and lost everything he had’ by Reverend Louis Torres. I’ve never forgotten it!  It was about Samson. An angel announced the birth of Samson and told his mother that she was to raise him as a Nazarite, one set apart for God with supernatural strength.  He was born to help free the Israelites from 40 years of rule and oppression by the Philistines.  So what does he do? He sees the greener? grass on the other side of the fence, in the enemy’s camp and falls in love with a PHILISTINE named Delila. Not exactly what God had in mind.  He knew better, but he was arrogant and foolhardy and decided to defy God and love Delila anyway.  ‘He got what he wanted, but lost everything he had’, eventually even his own life.  
You can read about him in the book of Judges. 

Isn’t looking at and longing for that grass on the other side a sign of discontentment?

Isn’t it living the ‘if only’ life as pastor Paul Tripp calls it?  If only I had a different wife, a new car, a boat, a different job, DIFFERENT CHILDREN?  The ‘if onlys’ are endless.  We come by this discontentment naturally.  Wasn’t Eve discontent in the garden?  She and Adam disobeyed God because they wanted to eat the fruit of that ONE TREE that God forbid them!   THEY HAD ALL THE OTHER TREES!

In The Founders Ministry Blog, Pastor Jeff Robinson wrote an article entitled, ‘6 Reasons Discontentment is Disobedience to God’.  I decided to include some of his informative article here.  He wrote:
‘Discontentment is mistrusting God.  Contentment is trusting God implicitly!

Discontentment is the opposite of faith!

Discontentment is complaining against God’s plan for my life.  We think we have a better plan.  As Paul Tripp put it, ‘I love me and have a wonderful plan for my life.’

Discontentment covets something God has not been pleased to give us.  He gave us His son; therefore, can’t we trust Him?  Romans 8:32 assures us that we can! 
‘He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?’

Discontentment implies that God has made a mistake.  My present circumstances are wrong. I will not be content until my circumstances change.

Discontentment denies the wisdom of God and exalts my wisdom. Discontentment was at the heart of the first sin. “Has God really said? That phrase is really at the heart of all our discontentment.’

The apostle Paul had a secret!!!

He said, ‘I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.’  Philippians 4:12.

What was His ‘secret’?  Simply TRUST GOD!

Perhaps he made a list of what he had and destroyed the LONG? list of the things he didn’t have.  I think if you make a list of what you have, you’ll realize how blessed you really are and quit stretching your neck to reach the… 

‘GREENER GRASS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE!’