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
Everywhere a person goes he will usually see someone with something that he does not have. Or he will hear of people talking about things that they have that he does not have. Then he will see and hear advertisements stating that he needs all of these things.
Desires to have all these different things will rise in his heart and mind. Then disappoint will set in when he cannot have these things.
God is giving the core basics of how the Israelites are to live. One of these are that they are not to covet anything of their neighbors.
Coveting is a term that is not commonly used but is seen and pushed nearly everywhere. No matter where a person goes, or what he watches or listens to, there are ads telling him that there is something that he is missing out on that everyone else has.
Often the intense desire for what someone else has will create discontentment, ungratefulness, bitterness and making bad choices in one’s heart and life. One will become discontent and ungrateful for what God has blessed him with. He may become bitter because he cannot have certain things. Then he may make bad choices to get what he does not have.
Believers are to not live like the world and get caught up in the trap of coveting what others have. Rather than coveting those things, one should be glad that God has allowed their neighbor to have those things. Then their focus should be on what God has blessed them with and allowing those things to be used by God to meet all of their neighbor’s needs.
You will have things in your life that your neighbor does not have. Your neighbor will also have things in his life that you do not have.
Do not allow the deceitfulness of greed to enter your heart and mind to desire what others have. Stand back and take a look at how God has already blessed you richly and met all of your needs according to His grace and power.
God promised to meet all of your needs. Do not covet what God has not given you, but trust in His provision for your needs.
Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will see the blessings God has given you; that you will be grateful for what God has given you; that God will strengthen you to remove any coveting desire you have in your heart; and that you will praise God for what your neighbor has been blessed with.
Leave a Reply