Discontentment is a sneaky enemy.

While anger and fear charge right at you, discontentment often slips in the back door and starts whispering in your ear.

Maybe it happens during the Thanksgiving family gathering. As people go around the table and share what they’re thankful for, you start hearing that whisper: Wouldn’t it be nice if you had that job? Or that awesome travel opportunity? Or that sweet new house? Or that amazing relationship? Your life is starting to look pretty sad, isn’t it?

By the time it’s your turn to share, you’re so focused on what you don’t have that you can barely remember what you do.

You might wonder if discontentment is such a big deal. After all, isn’t it natural to want good things?

In Scripture, we see that God understands our hearts. He knows we’re prone to be discontent with our lives. He also knows that we often want what others have. Too often, our discontentment leads to related sins like greed, jealousy, and covetousness.

These sinful desires replace God as the object of our desire. They also lead to a miserable existence, since no amount of money or possessions can fill our hearts to overflowing. That’s why Scripture tells us not to desire what others have (Exodus 20:17). Instead, God invites us to find our contentment in him and his love for us in Jesus Christ, who willingly gave his life for our salvation (John 3:16).

If you need encouragement to find your satisfaction in God today, use these five Scripture verses to defend against all forms of discontentment.

Focus on God’s kingdom above everything else.

Be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.

Matthew 6:33 GNT

Be on the lookout for every kind of greed.

[Jesus] went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.”

Luke 12:15 GNT

Watch out for the trap of loving money.

Well, religion does make us very rich, if we are satisfied with what we have. What did we bring into the world? Nothing! What can we take out of the world? Nothing! So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 GNT

Beware of jealousy and selfishness in your heart.

Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is also disorder and every kind of evil.

James 3:16 GNT

Find your satisfaction and strength in Jesus Christ, who promises to provide all that you need.

I am not saying this because I feel neglected, for I have learned to be satisfied with what I have. I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.

Philippians 4:11-13 GNT