ENVIOUS OR COVETOUS – ARE YOU ?

“A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”Proverbs 14:30 KJV

Make the decision to be content with all that you have been blessed. Focus on your relationship with God.  Remember great abundance is as to His will.

To feel envy is to harbor the resentful or unhappy feelings toward someone because of their success, good fortune, qualities, possessions, or even their family.   To experience covetous is to have a strong desire to possess for yourself something that belongs to somebody else. In short, either is sin. to envy or covet what someone else has instead of what you have been blessed with reveals that you are not thankful for what God has given you. Sometimes we think we are beyond such feelings…… Count Your Blessings without Feeling envy or covetous toward  others.

Imagine with me…..

If you were broke, cold, and hungry and found a twenty dollar bill on the side walk ….would you feel you had been blessed?  Perhaps you would stop and eat a good meal and take a large hot coffee with you to keep you warm as you walked on your way…would you feel blessed?

You turn the corner and as you wait to cross the street you overhear someone tell their companion that, coming up the street they found a hundred dollar bill and how they were always so lucky. Now, you remember seeing them just ahead of you before you found your twenty dollars. They laughed and say it is a start to a good night out with friends. 

Do you still feel that you have been wonderfully blessed to have found the twenty dollars and have had a filling meal and a warm drink?  Or do you feel that you were more in need than the person that found the hundred dollars? Do you complain and justify how it was wrong that someone, who apparently had money and would just waste it, had  found the hundred dollars instead you?

Would you feel envy or covetous in this situation?   Yes….No…

If you think to yourself, I do not hold envy or covetous toward anyone let me ask you to consider….

Do you know someone who appears to have it all? Maybe they have a good job with a good income to match. Do they seem to enjoy the good life while you work hard to make enough to provide a decent living and support your family?    How do you feel about them?

Have you ever bought something and was very pleased with it until you saw someone else with one you REALLY wished you could have bought instead? Perhaps it was a house, a car, a purse, a piece of jewelry or golf club?

We are told to give thanks in all things. We are to thank God for our blessings. We are to be satisfied with where God has placed us and with what He has given us. One reason for this is if we are constantly trying to surpass “the Jones” we are focusing ourselves on worldly possessions rather than on our walk in serving God. If we can not be at peace with our position and with our possessions at every stage of life then we are so much more vulnerable to the traps of sin.

God wants us to prosper, but He does not want the love of prospering to consume us. It does not mean that we should become complacent and wait for all gain to fall into our laps, but it does mean that we are not to let our love of position or possessions to keep us from seeking a  relationship with our Lord and Savior. There is no focus, no gain,  nor no desire that should reside in our heart that is greater than our desire to serve God.  It is written, Seek first the Kingdom of God and all theses things will be added to you. 

Choose to follow when He says follow and to wait, contently, where He says to wait. Ask God to guide you in all things and, even if it appears that others are passing you by on their way to the good life, know that nothing is greater than a life spent in His presence.

Trust Him

GOD LOVES YOU !!!

  
SCRIPTURE…..

The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will . 
Proverbs 21:1 AKJV

(36) And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:
(37) But if the cloud were not taken up , then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up .  
Exodus 40:36-37 AKJV

Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 
James 4:5 AKJV

Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. 
Proverbs 3:31 AKJV

A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones. 
Proverbs 14:30 AKJV

Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. 
Proverbs 23:17 AKJV

For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous , whom the LORD abhorreth . 
Psalm 10:3 AKJV

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 2 
Timothy 3:2 AKJV

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:45 AKJV

And having food and raiment let us be therewith content . 
1 Timothy 6:8 AKJV

I know both how to be abased , and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry , both to abound and to suffer need . Philippians 4:12 AKJV

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way , sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.  
Mark 10:21 AKJV