…He has given us exceeding great and precious promises; has bid us open our mouths wide, and has said that He will fill them. He would have us ask great things, and when we have enlarged our desires to the utmost, He is able to do exceeding more than we can ask or think. May we be as wise in our generation as the children of this world. They are not content with a little, or, even with much, so long as there is any probability of getting more. As to myself, I am but a poor man in the trade of grace; I live from hand to mouth, and procure just enough, (as we say,) to keep the wolf from the door. (John Newton to D. West from Letters of Newton, 130)
I think so long as I have an empty pack of jelly-beans, marshmallows, or any other sweets my children are not content until the bag is empty. The same goes with other teeth-rotting products like soda. Newton is saying that we should be like that. We should never content ourselves with the level of promises that we have received but should be constantly pressing the Lord for more. This is not selfish, stupid, or sinful this is holy, right, and good.
May we be more like Jacob who wrestled with God until he received His blessing and less like Esau who flitted away the promise on a bowl of soup.
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Lest, I or Newton be misunderstood this is not fodder for your health and wealth TV preachers. Jacob’s asking God to bless him had far more to do with covenant than it did with product. This isn’t a call to “not let God go until he gives me my Mercedes”. This is a call not be content until God destroys those feeble but boisterous desires for idols and replaces them with God-sized desires.
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