Yesterday I wrote about the cost of compromise and how was need to find contentment in who we were created to be. This topic transitions into today’s topic of covetousness.
When we covet we are ultimately revealing that whatever we are coveting is more precious to us than the Lord. One of the 10 commandments is, “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). The definition of covet is:1. To desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without regard to the rights of others. 2. To wish for, especially eagerly 3. To have a wrongful desire.
In today’s society and the materialism that surrounds us, it doesn’t take long to find something we desire and feel we should or must have. Our friends buy a new house, a new car, get new clothes etc., and we feel compelled to have it. The traps come when we feel discouraged or disappointed with what we currently have, be that relationships or possessions because then we feel we must obtain something else.
The problem is that while acquiring things might give us temporal pleasure, if we bank our happiness on this we will never truly be satisfied. Coveting is in such a nature that it never ends. You will always desire something else by fixing your eyes on things of this world and you’ll never be content.
When you covet something, you have an excessive craving for what does not belong to you. This is not merely admiring something someone has or an aspect of someone’s life. This is an extreme dissatisfaction with what you have and a drive to obtain more. I think that God naturally put a desire inside of mankind to desire something MORE. We were made to not be sufficient in ourselves as we were created to need God, and to desire Him. When sin entered the world, this desire got perverted into selfish ambition and thinking that we could fulfill ourselves with things of this world.
Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 4:4, “I have seen that all the work done is because a man wants what his neighbor has. This also is for nothing, like trying to catch the wind.” Solomon knew more wealth than anyone reading this, yet he saw it was all vanity. In the end all of our work to acquire things is futile and doesn’t carry over with us into eternity. Yes we need a roof over our heads and clothes on our back and I don’t think it’s wrong to have nice things, but is it really worth it to invest all our energy and desire into obtaining things?
To redirect the covetousness tendency within us, we must seek the Lord and the pleasure of His life for us. I was listening to a testimony this past week of a man who used to be very famous and had been in a lifestyle of drugs including meth for two years. He made the statement that when Holy Spirit came into his life, that it was a greater sensation than anything he had sought out before in his life of drugs. That not even the best “high” before remotely compared to a moment in the presence of God and receiving His forgiveness.
That testimony is powerful to me especially when I’ve seen people earnestly seek more things through means of this world. I’ve seen tears fall from not being able to have the latest and greatest and I too have felt the pain of feeling like I’m missing out at times. Yet when I really consider where lasting pleasure is, I know my heart has deceived me. For ultimate satisfaction comes from knowing Him and not in what I can hold in my hands or see. When my life is over, I will give an account of how I knew Jesus and how my life reflected Him in the highs and in the lows. I will be asked what I did with what He gave me including the family and relationships I’ve been blessed with. I will not have my car, a house, or any possessions with me. This makes Solomon’s words ring loudly in my ears as I don’t want to live my life attempting to “catch the wind”. I want to catch the heart of God.
What do we desire more of—Jesus or this world? What is our motive for wanting more things? Is it that we need for example a newer car because it’s breaking down or because we just “want” it? Are we heartbroken whenever we can’t get what “we want”? Are we willing to compromise integrity to obtain something? Have we invited the conviction of the Holy Spirit to reveal weakness in our hearts in this area?
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.