(From the archives)
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is thy neighbors." I learned a lesson about coveting early in my life. When I was about ten years old, my neighbor got a new cap pistol. It was a great cap pistol. You have to understand that in 1949 a cap pistol to a ten year old boy was like a computer game to a ten year old today. It was "love at first sight." I had to have that cap pistol. When my neighbor wasn't looking, I absconded with the cap pistol, took it across the street to my house and hid it in my underwear drawer. At last, it was mine. But I discovered that it did not belong to me, rather, I belonged to it. I did not enjoy that cap pistol one bit, because I couldn't take it out of the drawer to play with it. If mama and daddy saw it, they would want to know where I got it. If I played with it outside, my neighbor would see it and know that I had stolen it. (It didn't occur to me at the time that I had broken two commandments - coveting and stealing.) So about a week later, I stealthily went to my neighbor's house and laid it down on his front porch and quietly sneaked back home. At last, I was free from that blooming cap pistol. At en years old, I did not know what coveting meant, but I knew the effects of it. The fact that I remember this incident so clearly all of these years later, means that it made a profound impression on my mind. I wish that I could say that I never coveted again, but I can't. (However I did not steal another cap pistol, or anything else for that matter.) To live one's life wishing that one had what his neighbor has is a miserable way to live. I think you know what I mean. You could probably confess to coveting. Don't be like one fellow who said, "But at least I have never coveted my neighbor's donkey." The fact that his neighbor did not have a donkey must not have occurred to him. The key to overcoming covetousness is to put "things" in their proper perspective and in their proper place. There is nothing that our neighbor owns that we have to have to make our lives complete."Things" do not complete us. We need to have Paul's attitude as written in Philippians 4:11-13 after he had received a monetary gift from the Philippian Church: "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." There is the answer to overcoming covetousness. Selah Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|