The Finale!!! The 10th Commandment: Exodus 20:17 says: "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."
I'll be honest, I never really knew what "covet" meant. I think like many others, when you don't know what something means, and you don't want to feel silly by looking it up, we tend to just tell ourselves that it must not pertain to me! Because if you have never heard the term before, then how could it possibly have anything to do with you!?!
But when it comes to different terms in the Bible, it's extremely important to look up these words! It's kind of like playing Russian Roulette with your eternity by not looking them up! That is not a game that I would like to participate in! God knows the technology we have at our fingertips! Playing dumb in front of God Almighty will not be a good look on anyone!
The word covet means to envy or to desire! Not one of you can tell me now that this Commandment does not apply to you! We all naturally do this! We see a hairstyle that we love! We fall in love with houses, and the charm they give off. We all have a "dream car"! And people have been so sexualized, that almost everyone has a celebrity crush! Or at the very least a specific type of person that makes you turn your head. You go shopping to find shoes that you desire, along with clothing and jewelry! These are things that we covet!
Are you still fighting the fact that this does in fact pertain to you!?! HA!
The manner in which I laid things out above is healthy, that's normal! To desire something and to know that you may never possess those things, and still be perfectly okay with that! That is good! The problem begins when that want, that desire, becomes more than that. When it starts to consume your mind. When you lie, steal and cheat just to possess your desire. That's when it has crossed that line.
When you want an outfit so badly that you boldly walk into a store and steal it. (This would definitely be breaking the 10th Commandment!)
Or when someone becomes obsessed with another person, and instead of meeting them in a normal fashion, they start to stalk the person, just to get a glimpse of them, or to get a whiff of their cologne! Folks- Scaring someone is not going to help either one of you! It is also not pleasing to the Lord!
Then there are extreme wants and desires. Like a woman that wants to have children and cannot. For some, those thoughts, along with that burden, consume a person. They start thinking outside of the box. A healthy thought process would turn to adoption or foster care! An unhealthy thought process would turn into kidnapping someone else's child. Thinking they would raise the child as their own. Meanwhile destroying multiple lives in the wake of their pain.
For one thing, we need to stop turning our wants and desires into loss and pain. Just because we cannot have them. Some people act as if they are neglected when they don't get the outfit or shoes that they desire. They turn it into resentment and pain.
There are other wants and desires such as wanting a child, or wanting to find a parent, that can cause heart ache. When we focus our thoughts on God!! Some of those heart aches start to fade away and begin to heal. For some God will make a way when there seemed to be no way! God wants to help! He wants you to ask! He wants you to seek Him!
Luke 12:33&34 says, "Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in Heaven! And the purses of Heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. 34. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."
So where is your heart? Is it with your shoe collection? You know you can't take those with you to Heaven! Or is your heart with God! The one preparing you eternal shoe collection!?!
Until next time:
Numbers 6:24-26
24. May the Lord bless you and protect you!
25. May the Lord smile upon you and be gracious to you!
26. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace!
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