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, or maybe you think your neighbor’s husband or wife 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 job.

All of the above feelings are what we call envy, and full blown envy breaks one of the ten commandments which God gave to Moses for His people to follow.   This describes the act of covetousness; and 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; His People?

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

The way you live out 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 us with this.

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 anyway?

Envy is one of those self-inflicted types of sin.

Often the damage doesn’t hurt anyone except for the person being envious.  Often the sin of envy never becomes public knowledge.  But; the envy is still there, hidden deep inside the heart of the person with the covetous thoughts.

THE ART OF HURTING YOURSELF

When you begin to dwell on the things that belong to others to the point that you covet them for yourself; you actually bring damage upon your own soul.

It all starts with a simple little thought.

That little thought then 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; since you are lacking in the thing that you most desire.  You come to the final (false) conclusion that nothing but the thing that 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 desiring 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 that you might eventually suffer from some type of financial disaster from such an impulsive financial decision produced purely out of your own lust for something that 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.  You might even find yourself having little visions and dreams about an adulterous affair with them.

If you allow such thinking to continue sooner or later there are huge chances for sin to come from the wrong desires of lust, enviousness and covetousness; even though it all started out so very small and innocent but just grew and grew until it 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 that money can bring to you and you begin to feel that you will do almost anything to achieve financial freedom.  You might eventually 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 that you could wind up in a place you never dreamed of going.

WHAT SEEMED TRUE WASN’T TRUE AT ALL

It is odd to note how our thinking begins to change whenever we reach this point.

The very financial freedom that you sought enough to steal for would now feel like a horrible trap.  Shame replaces desire.  You begin to turn on yourself because of your anger at your own lack of self-control and day-after-day brings more unhappiness.

Even if you got away with the crime; you would be living in the fear that the truth might suddenly become known and everyone would suddenly see you for the thief that you have become.

THE MENTALITY OF A THREE YEAR OLD

Everything began with that silly little original covetous thought.

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 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 and even Mom gets pretty angry.  Nobody wins this battle.  The toy is set aside and 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 it out for us right from the very beginning.  He wanted us to be aware and to know when to stop and put on the brakes and 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 little commandment will bring you to a place of more joy and happiness in the end.

NO ONE PROMISED IT WOULD BE EASY

It is a very good commandment to keep; but keeping it is not a bit easy.  These types of tempting circumstances sort of sneak up on you and present themselves whenever 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; and it is the heart that can guard us against this war called coveting.

Not one 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.  It is God’s Holy Spirit that 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 and be about talking out the details.  Get the whole story out on the table and ask God to help you to avoid future pitfalls.

Become aware of what you struggle with the most and give that over to God in prayer.

No one can walk through this alone; but 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.” 

The words of Paul have preached volumes of wisdom into my own testimony.  About thirty years ago this author was a very unhappy woman.  There were many things I had wanted in this life that did not turn out the way I had hoped.  I was always coveting the things I did not get in the past and trying everything that I could to change the situation.  I was hoping to regain some of the opportunities that 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 them many times before but I had never owned them.  They always seemed to be words for others; not for me.  Now it was as if I were hearing them for the first time and they took on a whole new meaning for me.

I began to apply the verse in Philippians 4:12 to all of the situations in my own life where I found myself feeling discontent.  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 also involved going to others and seeking their forgiveness.  I would then give up these things and give them over to God to do with as He pleased.

In doing this; I 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 that the laughter quotient of my days had doubled; and I was rarely found without a happy smile on my lips and a song in my heart.

Like Paul; I found myself suddenly content and happy to be living in the love of God within any circumstances that He placed 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 that 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 that God had known just what I needed all along.

BECOMING CONTENT IN CHRIST

It wasn’t until I let God furnish the things of my life in 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 and what my destiny and purpose in this life was all about.

That took me on a very full journey with God into the places that 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.