Selfishness and contentment are inversely proportionate
The more selfish you are, the less content you will be.
The less selfish you are, the more content you will be.
The Bible says godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6)
True godliness is achieved when we put God first and put ourself last. Jesus taught us to be thankful for every single day we are given and if we have food and clothes, we should be content. The Bible also teaches us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to, but to prefer others over ourselves. (Romans 12:3). Essentially our goal should be to better others more than bettering ourselves. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
This is why Jesus taught what we know as the "two golden rules" - on which hang all of the ten commandments plus all the law and the prophets. Love God with all your heart soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself. (Mark 12:30 - 31)
You'll notice when Jesus said this he didn't include loving yourself because I don't believe this is important. What's important is loving God first and putting others before our needs, our achievements our ambition, and what we want and desire.
Jesus taught that ambition is never a good thing and never leads us to a good place. Many lessons can be learnt from the story of Lucifer the arch angel who fell and became the devil because his selfish ambition to rule Heaven led him to a very, very bad place and ultimately lead him to being expelled from heaven.
As true followers of Jesus we can put our faith and trust in God our father that he knows exactly what we need and exactly where we need to be at any given stage. God knows exactly what we need to do to get there, and that we don't have to strive or push up hill trying to achieve it. Instead we should just rest in the knowledge that he loves us, cares for us, and He will get us to exactly where we need to be for His kingdom and his glory.
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