Elul Meditations Day 18

ELUL MEDITATIONS DAY 18

POINTS TO PONDER FROM ELUL MEDITATIONS DAY 17

Why do we say “truth is life?”  Do you agree?  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2.  How can we relate the verdict of “guilty” given to Jesus on the cross in a way that relates to the human capacity to lie? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3.  Which disciples of Jesus died because of false accusations?   __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4.  How can our tongue turn into a violent weapon?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5.  How have you used your tongue as a weapon in this past year?  Do you want to talk to God about this today?  Will you ask God to forgive you and give you enough strength to change?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6.  Have you ever suffered from someone else telling lies about you?  Do you want to seek God’s healing for this today?  How will you pray and what will you ask God regarding this healing? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ELUL DAY 18 MEDITATION

THE JOURNEY TO CONTENTMENT

Have you ever been envious of something that belonged to your neighbor? Did you let that begin to spoil your own contentment?

Maybe you love the style of their home or maybe you enjoy the way their car drives. Perhaps you think your neighbor’s husband or wife is the BEST catch of the whole neighborhood. It could be you wish you had a job that was as much fun as your best friend’s job.

All such feelings are what we call envy. Full-blown envy breaks one of the Ten Commandments. This describes the act of covetousness. God does not want us to have this trait in our lives.

WHO DO YOU BELONG TO?

Are you part of God’s tribe?

You know what I mean. Do you consider yourself to be one of His People?

God had “people” from every generation whom He expected to follow these commandments.  Are you one of God’s current day “people?”  If so, you should be taking these commandments very seriously.

The way you live your life daily defines who you belong to.

If you belong to God, you must learn to follow His ways. He gave us the Ten Commandments to help.

WHAT IF YOUR SIN IS VERY, VERY SMALL

Isn’t “just a little” envy perfectly harmless? What possible harm could just a little envy be when no one but you knows your true feelings? Envy is one of those self-inflicted types of sin. In some cases the damage doesn’t hurt anyone except for the person being envious.

Often the sin of envy never becomes public knowledge.  However, the envy is still there. It lies hidden deep inside the heart of the person with the covetous thoughts.

THE ART OF HURTING YOURSELF

When you begin to dwell on things that belong to others to the point you covet them for yourself, you actually bring damage upon your own soul. It all starts with a simple little thought. That little thought grows and grows until the thoughts of the object of your desire consumes you.

The fact that you do not have what you desire in the moment begins to plague you with a form of unhappiness. Sadness enters your soul, since you are lacking in the thing that you most desire. You come to the final (false) conclusion that nothing but the thing you desire the most can bring you total happiness and contentment.

UNBRIDLED TEMPTATIONS LEAD TO SIN

As this desire grows and escalates you might even be tempted to commit some type of sin in order to attain the object of your affections. If you are desirous of someone else’s car, or house, or even their furnishings or clothes, you might be tempted to go into debt in order to buy these same things for yourself.

Of course that would mean you might eventually suffer from some type of financial disaster. This would come from such an impulsive financial decision produced purely out of your own lust for something you do not have.

If you envy someone else’s spouse, you might find yourself flattered by their attentions. You might notice yourself spending just a little too much time talking with them. Also, you might find yourself having dreams about an adulterous affair with them.

When you allow such thinking to continue, there is the chance for sin to come from these wrong desires of lust, enviousness and covetousness. It happens, even though everything starts very small and innocent. Such thoughts can grow and grow until they became bigger than you.

WHAT IS YOUR TEMPTATION?

Perhaps you desire to be as wealthy as the famous people you read about in magazines.  Maybe you long for all the freedom money can bring to you. You begin to feel you will do almost anything to achieve financial freedom. Eventually you might find yourself scheming and planning to rob someone of their wealth in order to fulfill your own selfish desires.

That little covetous feeling just grows and grows until finally you have committed a crime. You could suddenly find yourself deep within the snares of robbery, adultery, unnecessary debt, etc. It is very possible you could wind up in a place you never dreamed of going.

WHAT SEEMED TRUE WASN’T TRUE AT ALL

Maybe in the end we finally obtain our wrong desires. Funny how our thinking begins to change whenever we reach this point. The very financial freedom we sought enough to steal for might now feel like a horrible trap. Shame replaces desire. We begin to turn on ourselves because of our anger at our own lack of self-control. Then day-after-day brings more unhappiness.

Even if we get away with the crime, we will be living in the fear that the truth might suddenly become known. Everyone will suddenly see us for the thief that we have become.

THE MENTALITY OF A THREE YEAR OLD

Everything began with that silly little original covetous thought. Typically it all starts out with just one little thought, one little sliver of discontent, one little longing to be like someone else or to have what someone else possesses.

If you think about it covetousness is really the simple mentality of a three year old. It compares to grabbing another child’s toys while screaming “Mine!!!” The other child cries and the child who took the toy is unhappy when they try to take their toy back.  Everyone cries. Even Mom gets pretty angry. Nobody wins this battle. The toy is set aside. Now no one gets to play.  Everyone loses.  Nothing gets better, only worse in the end.

WHEN WE COVET EVERYONE LOSES

Our very wise God knew the danger of such traps. He had Moses to chisel some very important words into stone.

“Thou shalt not covet.  (Exodus 20:17)

God spelled this out for us from the very beginning.  He wanted us to be aware and to know when to stop and put on the brakes. HIs desire was that we learn to protect ourselves from such wrong temptations in life.

A TIP FOR KEEPING ALL OF THE COMMANDMENTS

This one little commandment consisting of only four words, if followed correctly, can actually keep you from breaking all of the rest of the Ten Commandments.

You might want to stop and ponder that for a bit.

These are four very important little words from God.  God’s word is always infallible. Simply learning to keep this one commandment will bring you to a place of more joy and happiness.

NO ONE PROMISED IT WOULD BE EASY

Exodus 20:17 is a very good commandment to keep. However, keeping it is not a bit easy. These tempting circumstances have a way of sneaking up on you. They present themselves when you are not paying attention. The wrong thoughts they bring will catch you totally off guard. That is why God warned us ahead of time.

So how do we begin to avoid covetousness in our daily lives?

We can start by guarding our hearts.

ABOVE ALL THINGS GUARD YOUR HEART

The heart is the very place where we learn to respond to life correctly. 

There is a constant tug-of-war going on between the heart, the mind and the spirit. It is the heart that can guard us against this war called coveting.

No heart can become victorious without the reinforcement of the love of Christ.

It is Christ living inside our hearts that opens our eyes to the dangers of covetousness.

God’s Holy Spirit keeps us from caving and giving in to this constant battle.

WHAT IS A PERSON TO DO?

If you find yourself in a battle with covetousness, the best thing to do is to go to God and confess the sin. Make an honest, clean confession. Do it out loud. Be about talking out the details. Get the whole story out on the table. Ask God to help you to avoid future pitfalls.

Become aware of what you struggle with the most. Give that over to God in prayer. No one can walk through this alone;. However, with God’s help all things are possible.

HOW THE APOSTLE PAUL HANDLED COVETING

The Apostle Paul had a very good method for avoiding covetousness.

He practiced the art of contentment.

Paul speaks 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 or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

TESTIMONY

The words of Paul have preached volumes of wisdom into this author’s testimony.  About fourty years ago this author was a very unhappy woman. There were many things I wanted in this life. Much of life had not turned out the way I had hoped. I was always coveting the things I did not have and trying everything I could to change the situation.  Also, I was hoping to regain some of the opportunities I had foolishly let slip right through my fingers.

As I prayed about all of this; God showed me Paul’s words. I had read those words many times before but I had never owned them. In the past these seemed to be words for others, not for me.  Suddenly it was as if I were hearing them for the first time. Those words of Paul took on a whole new meaning for me.

I began to apply the verse from Philippians 4:12 to all of the situations in my own life. When I found myself feeling discontent I would repeat them to myself. This process changed my outlook on many things. For years I considered Paul’s verse to be my own life verse.

OVERCOMING IN SPITE OF OURSELVES

As each real-life circumstance presented itself, I would pray first. Next, I would face my past mistakes and ask God’s forgiveness for my wrong thinking. Sometimes this involved going to others and seeking their forgiveness. I would then give up such thinking.

Slowly, I learned to give all such thoughts over to God to do with as He pleased. This process called “taking your thoughts captive” comes from another scripture found in 2 Corinthians 10:5, We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 

Through this process of recognition, conversations with God, repentance and meditation on the scriptures, I was able to let go of the things that I had previously coveted. Then I asked God to replace the wrong desires of my heart with the things He truly desired for me.

The more I did this the better I began to feel. Soon a person who had been sad, lonely, and discontent became a person with a happy and joy-filled heart. I found the laughter quotient of my days had doubled. After this simple process it was rare to find me without a happy smile on my face and a song in my heart.

Like Paul, I found myself suddenly content and happy to be living in the love of God. This has continued to be true within any circumstance God places me.

SURPRISED BY JOY

After several years of applying Paul’s theory about contentment to my own life I realized something very important. The things that were making me sad, those things I had longed for with all of my heart in the past, were no longer the things that brought me joy.

In actuality, these things had always eventually made me sad. Only I had not realized the truth. When I truly gave my own will over for God’s will, and I began to live my life by being content with just the things that He provided for me daily, my days began to fill up and run over with joyful living.

I realized God knew just what I needed all along. When would I learn to listen first, then obey? It is just that simple.

BECOMING CONTENT IN CHRIST

It wasn’t until I let God furnish the things of my life His way and in His timing that I truly found contentment. By giving up my plan and being content with God’s plan I truly learned who I was. This helped me define what my destiny and purpose in this life was all about.

That took me on a very full journey with God. It lead me directly into the places I was supposed to be going.  The adventures I had dreamed about in the past paled in comparison to what God brought to me.

Covetous living can’t hold a candle to true contentment.

Trust God, He will show you the way.

PRAYER

Father, Please protect our minds and hearts from any types of coveting. Teach us to rejoice over the blessings of our brothers and sisters. Help us learn to be content with all of the blessings you allow us to obtain in this life. Show us what we need and lead us to have thankful hearts that are willing to serve others with humility.

VERSE

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15)

SONG

BE THANKFUL FOR TODAY by Jackson R –https://youtu.be/Cez65-ITiNM?si=MsXUwaexKuFOxZJs