Something the Lord talked about recently was about 'coveting' and the definition of this is:
"to feel strong or immoderate desire for"
"to wish for something longingly"
"yearn to possess something especially something belonging to another”.
In my vision that led me to thinking about coveting, I saw someone coveting their future but someone else was living in that place already and they had to wait. Often we may find ourselves coveting those people who have where we believe we are 'going to be' in the Lord. The promise the Lord has given us. Perhaps that might be the future promise of children that we don't yet have, the future promise of a house, the future promise of those spiritual leaders we admire but perhaps we are longing to be now.
This is not a topic often preached about and I find in my thinking what a powerful topic that needs to be talked about as I believe if we became a satisfied people, like Paul writes where he learned to be 'content' in whatever circumstances, how differently our worlds around us would look.
Exodus 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
It’s a powerful scripture because often we ‘covet’, we ‘desire’ what we do not have and our lives are often lived in a state of dissatisfaction because of what we may have had once that we no longer have now, or we are wanting something we have yet to have. All of this comes from a place of not understanding the fullness of who and whose we are in Christ and our identity found in him, but that is a whole another topic but when addressing something like coveting, needs to be understood.
James 4:1-3 “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have want you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend when you get on your pleasures.”
This is a really hard scripture to digest because within all of us, when we take a look at our lives, all of us in some way I am sure fight and quarrel about things. I remember as a parent when my daughter didn’t do what she was asked, by the third or fourth time of asking, my voice was raised and a full on argument was occurring. But the reality is one or both of us was not getting our own way, hence the argument. And so I had to examine this journey in my parenting and also in my relationship with my husband and look at why I was arguing or fighting and was it worth what I was fighting for or could I do this another way which would be more productive and less harmful for all concerned?
Recently I was chatting with some one about the ‘new move’ of God and how it looked and this person seemed to think it looked a certain way and I think it looks a certain way and yet who is right and who is wrong? Actually we have to be careful that we are not holding on to ‘old’ wineskins of what we think it looks because we think we have seen it. When we do this we make an 'idol' of something instead of continually living a day by day walk a walk of faith with the Lord and he will lead us into the 'new thing' which is actually 'new' every morning. If something like this is breaking relationships with people because of different thinking, then I am fighting with my neighbour and so it needs to be assessed in the light of God’s word rather than our own desires that well up within us.
It’s a huge topic but I believe the Lord wants us to repent from ‘coveting’ those things that we ‘desire’ and don’t yet possess, those things that cause arguments in our lives, those things that we are continually pursuing whether it be financial success, a body that looks stunning, a new car, the ‘new move of God,’ whatever it may look like, that says the place I am in I am not satisfied in. Let's be a people that are learning to give thanks in all circumstances, whether well feed or hungry, whether possessing everything or possessing nothing, whether liked by others or not, whether having the latest gadgets or having no gadgets. When we give thanks and we look at the good in our lives, we no longer look at the 'lack'. Bless you all.