Fri.’s Devo - Coveting

Read Ex. 20:17 This is the 10th Commandment: thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, wife, servants, ox, ass, or anything else. Coveting is to envy someone else’s stuff. Cain coveted God’s response to Abel’s sacrifice. Instead of asking why God rejected his gift and changing, he let it fester in him for years till it finally led him to murder. Coveting is wrong in so many ways. First of all, it means that your priorities are fixed on this earth and not on eternal things. These worldly things perish and wear out but eternal things are…eternal. Secondly, it means that you don’t look to God to give you the food that is convenient to you. (Pro. 30:8 “Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.”) God knows just what we need and when we need it. Ps. 37 says that if we delight in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our heart. We tend to look at the blessings of other people and think that it is the result of their righteousness which is many times true. But, with riches comes great responsibility. Some of the richest people are hidden in mid-size homes, driving insignificant vehicles and giving great amounts of money to the kingdom of God while other middle-incomers are maxed out in their credit trying to look rich and keep ahead of everyone else. The way to fight the urge to impress and covet someone else’s stuff is to find your delight in God. We don’t have to impress him, he loves us just the way we are - naked and sinful. When He becomes our heart’s desire, then he can trust us with anything the earth has to offer and it won’t destroy us. Despite the saying it is NOT the one who dies with the most toys that wins, it is the one who dies first then lives for Jesus that wins.