Exodus 20:17 Amplified Bible
17 “You shall not covet [that is, selfishly desire and attempt to acquire] your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
The Ten Commandments end with a call to contentment, truly the other side of the bookends to where we started. The Lord begins His commandments calling His people to love and worship only Him, to never worship any idols. God now finishes His commandments calling His people into a covenant of contentment with everything that God gifts to us, that their love and worship brings with it.
This is a call to be thankful and content with the life that God has given you; To not crave or desire what others have or despise what you have been given, but to be fully and utterly, perfectly thankful for the life that God designed for you.
Excessive material consumption has become a way of life and no matter how much we obtain or have, it is never enough. We obtain the job we thought was 100% right for us and quickly are 100% dissatisfied until we get the promotion.
We buy the house to only desire one bigger and nicer. There is not one aspect of our life that we don’t desire more in. Even in ministry we desire different gifts, a greater platform, or for God to bless more than He has chosen to do so.
With all this desire never quenched, we become frustrated and ungrateful.
It’s hard to live in peace and thanksgiving when you never have what you actually desire.
In this frustration, sin takes root.
We soon begin to miss all the great blessings that God has blessed us with because we are always focused on what others have or what we don’t have.
In this 10th commandment God calls us to peace in contentment. If God wanted us to have more, we would have it. If we needed different circumstances or abilities, we would have them. Instead of always saying “if only this” and “if only that,” God calls us to rest in all that He has done in and through our life.
There will always be someone who has more, is blessed differently, or is experiencing life from different angles than you. However, there is only one you. Only one you that He walks with daily in the exact way that He does.
God chose you from the beginning of time.
God desired you into existence.
God sent His Son to die so that you one day would not.
He counts all the hairs on your head and gave you air to breathe today simply because He wants you live. Everything you have, no matter how much or little, is because God loves and cares for you. That should be enough for true Shalom.
The world will always gift us with disappointments and leave us thirsty. It will never provide you what you are looking for, even if you find it.
They only part of life which truly offers peace is Christ!
Jesus is where all of our joy comes from.
That is why as believers we can smile while poor or rich, sick or healthy.
We praise His name in all seasons because He is the only one that is worthy of praise. The only One that offers 100% Shalom and 100% contentment.
In the name of God, the father and God the Son and God, the Holy Spirit,
Pray,
Psalm 23 Complete Jewish Bible
23 (0) A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai is my shepherd; I lack nothing.
2 He has me lie down in grassy pastures,
he leads me by quiet water,
3 he restores my inner person.
He guides me in right paths
for the sake of his own name.
4 Even if I pass through death-dark ravines,
I will fear no disaster; for you are with me;
your rod and staff reassure me.
5 You prepare a table for me,
even as my enemies watch;
you anoint my head with oil
from an overflowing cup.
6 Goodness and grace will pursue me
every day of my life;
and I will live in the house of Adonai
for years and years to come.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 