“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20:17
The final command that God placed in the ten commandments was one about coveting. This is an extreme desire to have what someone else has. It starts out coveting the neighbor’s house, but then goes on to his servants, wife, animals, or anything else.
In most of the world the focus is always on having more. Advertisements are made in such a way that they say if your neighbor has this item and you don’t, you are not of full value and are missing out. The world tries to say that you deserve to have the best of everything.
No matter how much you get, you will always have a neighbor who has something more, newer, or better. Cell phones and cars are two things that people change all of the time. Everyone wants the newest and best. No one wants to be left without it.
Many people will say that they do not want someone’s wife, yet, they are watching or looking at pornography and desiring the man or woman in it. They are desiring someone else’s spouse. They are coveting something that they do not have.
Coveting all these things will only make you desire things you cannot have. The more you want and get, the more you will want and strive to get.
As a believer in Jesus, you must realize that you do not deserve anything but death and punishment outside of Jesus. It is only by the grace and mercy of God that Jesus has given you life through His shedding of His blood. Nothing you can do will earn any of that life.
If you do not deserve anything, then you should not covet anything either. The only thing you should covet is getting closer to Jesus and being more like Him everyday. Covet the things God wants you to have or be.
You cannot get everything, so stop striving to get it all and stop desiring to have it all. Accept what God has given you and seek only what He wants. Then you will have a full, abundant life that Jesus promised.
I pray today that you will realize how much you have in Jesus; that you will only desire what God wants you to have; that you will not be greedy and wanting everything everyone else has; and that you will know God’s desire for you life.
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