THOU SHALT NOT COVET
(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
Have
you ever been envious of something that belonged to your neighbor?
Maybe
you love the style of their home, or maybe you enjoy the way their car drives,
or maybe you think your neighbor’s husband is the BEST catch of the whole neighborhood,
or perhaps you wish you had a job that was as much fun as your best friend’s.
All
of the above feelings are what we call envy; and full blown envy breaks the
tenth commandment that God spoke to Moses about up on the Mountain.
Isn’t
a little envy perfectly harmless though?
What
possible harm could it do when usually no one even knows your feelings but you
anyway?
Envy
is one of those self-inflicted types of sins.
The damage doesn’t usually hurt anyone but the person who is being
envious.
When
you begin to dwell on those things that belong to others and covet them for
your own you can actually bring damage to your own soul.
It
all starts with such simple little thoughts, and then it grows and grows until
the thoughts of what you desire consume you and then begins to plague you with
a constant form of unhappiness because you are lacking that thing; and now
nothing but the thing you covet brings you satisfaction.
When
this feeling grows and escalates you might even commit some other sins in order
to fulfill your desire for something that belongs to someone else.
If
you enjoy someone’s car, or house or even their clothes or furniture you are
tempted to go into debt to buy the same things for yourself; and then you
eventually suffer from financial disaster which your own lusts provoked.
If
you envy someone else’s mate you might catch yourself being flattered by their
attention and spending just a little too much time talking with them. You might catch yourself having visions of an
adulterous affair with them; and sooner or later sin comes from that wrong
desire of envy and covetousness that started out so very small and innocent and
then grew and grew until it became bigger than you.
Perhaps
you wish to be as wealthy as the people you read about in magazines; and you
long for the freedom that money can bring to you and you begin to feel that you
will do almost anything to achieve more financial freedom. You might just catch yourself scheming and
planning to rob someone of their wealth in order to furnish your own selfish
desires.
The
little covetous feeling grows and grows until you have committed a crime; and
you find yourself in the snares of robbery, adultery, debt, etc.; somewhere you
never imagined you would go.
The
very freedom that you sought after by obtaining the wealth you coveted through
illegal means now just feels like a horrible trap! You begin to turn on yourself in anger and
you inflict your guilt upon yourself day after day and you feel trapped. You are always afraid of when the truth may
become public and everyone will see you for the thief that you have become because
of your original covetousness.
It
all starts with just one little thought; one little sliver of discontent; one
little longing to be like someone else or to have what someone else has.
Our
very wise God knew the danger of these traps, so He had Moses to chisel those
very important words in stone: Thou shalt not covet (Exodus 20:17.)
God
spelled it out for us right from the beginning, so we would know when to stop
and put on the breaks and protect ourselves from wrong temptations.
This one little commandment, if followed
correctly, can keep you from breaking all the rest of them! These are four very important little words!
God’s
word is infallible.
If
you keep this commandment you will have so much more joy and happiness in your
days.
It
is a very good commandment; but it isn’t an easy one! It sort of sneaks up on you and presents
itself when you aren’t paying attention.
It will catch you totally off guard.
This is why God so clearly spelled it out for us.
So
how do we avoid covetousness in our daily lives?
We
must start by guarding our hearts.
The
heart is where we must learn how to respond to the things of life. There is a constant war going on between the
flesh and the spirit and the heart is the main force that can guard against
that war; or give in to it. Not one
heart can make it without the reinforcement of the love of Christ living inside.
It
is Christ living in us that opens our eyes to the danger of covetousness, and
it is God’s Holy Spirit that protects us from caving and giving in to this
battle.
If
you are doing battle with this sin; the best thing you can do is to go to God
and make a clean confession. Do it out
loud and be as thorough as you can. Get
the whole story out on the table and ask God to help you to learn how to avoid
whatever it is that you struggle with the most.
You can’t do it on your own; but with God’s help all things become
possible.
The
Apostle Paul had a very good way of avoiding covetousness in his life. He practiced contentment.
Paul explains in Philippians 4:12: “I know what
it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in
any and every situation, whether well fed of hungry, whether living in plenty
or in want.”
About
thirty years ago I was a very unhappy woman. There were many things that I had wanted in
life that did not turn out the way that I had hoped. I was always coveting the things that I did
not get in the past and hoping that there was something that I could do that
would change that situation and turn it around so that I could have all the
things that had slipped right through my fingers.
As
I prayed about this, God showed me that verse from Philippians. I had read it many times before and heard it
repeated by others often; but it suddenly took on a whole new meaning for me. I began to apply that verse to all of those
situations where I was discontent. The
more I thought about it and faced the ghosts of my past mistakes and gave them
to God and asked Him to replace the desires of my heart with the things He
desired for me; the better I began to feel about everything.
Soon
a person who had been continuously moping and sad became a person with a quick smile
and a joyful heart.
I can truthfully say
the laughter quotient in my days doubled!
After several years of carefully applying Paul’s theory about
contentment to my daily life I realized something very important: The things that made me sad, the things I had
longed for with all my heart in the past, were not the things that brought me
joy. Those things had only made me sad
in actuality. When I gave my will over to God and began to live in total contentment with
just the things that He provided for me; my days began to fill up and run over
with joyful living. I realized that
God had known what I needed all along and it wasn’t until I let Him furnish the
things of my life in His way and in His time that I truly found contentment and
I truly came to know who I was and what God had created me to do with my
life.
Had
I obtained all those things that my heart so longed for before I became content
and accepted God’s way; I would never have achieved total happiness.
This
isn’t the only commandment that works out that way; they all do in some form,
shape or fashion.
If
you have gained nothing at all from this study of Moses on the Mountain
receiving the Ten Commandments; I hope that you remember that each and every
commandment that God gave; He gave out of a Father’s pure love.
He
wasn’t trying to create complications for us; He actually wanted to make things
simpler for us.
He
wasn’t trying to withhold blessings from us; He wanted the blessings that we
received to be REAL.
Each
commandment given to Moses on that day was another way for God to help us to
find out just how unique we are in His eyes.
That is the only way to ever experience complete joy in this life.
Not
another person on this earth has been created just exactly like you! God wants you to see that, and to know that
you are who you are because He has planned a very special purpose and life out
just for you. He loves everything about
every design that He put into each of us; and He has our backs, and knows exactly
what is best for us. We must trust that His
commandments are to encourage us to believe and follow Him.
By
avoiding covetousness in our lives we avoid so many other evils.
Often
covetousness brings that green-eyed monster called jealousy. If you want to
find out how bad that can get; go read the story of Sarah in Genesis. She had a bad case of jealousy; until God
taught her what it was like to be content with the things that He provided
whenever He decided to provide them.
That was when Sarah began to experience true joy. As humans operating in
our own power and intellect, we get too competitive and this seeps into our
relationships and we lose focus on God’s plan for our lives.
If
you have fallen victim to coveting simply stop right now and confess your sin
to God.
As
you ponder your sin in your prayer just stop and take a little inventory of all
the areas of discontent that you are experiencing. Determine what you can do to be content in
these areas and visualize yourself going through the correct motions instead of
the wrong ones of the past. Think
through how you will handle the situation the next time it arises. Accept God’s will in your life and begin to
move forward as the person that God has truly made you to be. Whenever you fill the discontentment raising
it’s ugly head again; determine to be grateful for what God has designed
specifically for you.
Give
God thanks for the things that He provides constantly. Let go of the things you don’t really need
and begin to live in the abundance of a grateful heart. You will ace the requirements of this
commandment and receive abundance and joy as a bonus!
May
God lead and direct each and every one of us as we remember all the
commandments He gave to Moses on the mountain.
May
these ten best ways to live bring a new strength and hope into our days and
make our lives full and abundant as we carry out God’s will within our own
little part of the world through the course of every day living.
