We live in a world that uses envy to manipulate our desires. Politicians stoke the fires of class envy to breed resentment and anger. Advertisers incite jealousy to push products that we don't really need. And the fall of man was a direct result of one man's uncontrolled desire to usurp God's authority to himself.
Exodus 20:17 [NKJV]
You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.
Our Lord is a kind and generous Father. He never begrudges His children anything that is good for us. He loves to give and give and give. So much so that He sent Christ to satisfy His justice, so that He could give eternal life to you and to me.
There are things, however, that are not ours to have. When we pursue those kinds of things, we are making a conscious choice to become our own god, to determine for ourselves what is good for us. When we see it in those terms, it seems so obvious that this is really, really bad idea.
The challenge today, then, is to see covetousness in its truthful light. To see it as the horrible sin that it truly is. To turn away from that sin and to accept and be content with what our loving God and Father provides for us.
Be encouraged, Jose
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