DEALING WITH COVETOUSNESS - PART 2

Blessed Saints, In continuing dealing with covetousness, I want to emphasize that when we desire for God to help us meet our needs, that is what we should do to go before the Throne of Grace. We should never feel guilty of going to God and seeking Him to meet our needs or petition Him to help bless us further in order to bless others more. I want to say to many of you who don't live in the affluent countries that are in great need of items that you desire to have. I so appreciate your petitions for God to meet your needs and not your "greeds". When I visited Zambia back in 2006, I admire those who are without (like a mode of any transportation) whom walked mile after mile after mile to carry groceries home, carry buckets of water or even just to go to an afternoon Bible Study service out in the middle of the country miles away from the closest town. When I was a passenger with a dear Pastoral couple from Zambia while driving to a Wednesday afternoon service, many people would be walking over to that service that was still at least 8 miles away, walking on foot. God only knows how many miles they have trekked already at that point. They could have very well complained, but didn't. Ironically, I hear more people complain who have more then they need in their abundance then those who have very little and yet are thankful to what little they do have. When I talk about the term covetous, this is when it is a definite problem and needs to be dealt with when those of us who already have an abundance beyond our needs and we continue to remain dis-satisfied by coveting more and more. Dealing mostly with being covetous is failing to see the difference between our "wants" to our "needs". One of the things that often identify having a problem with covetousness is being unthankful for what we already have. Again, this is someone who sees the glass half empty and fails to see the same glass half full by thanking God for what we have. When we are thankless, we do the exact opposite of His Good and Perfect will for us. I always have said that to silence a complainer, they need to live under the conditions of many who live in poverty for awhile and really experience how they live. Just like the prodigal son had to find out the hard way and realize what he did have at home by having lost all. It often takes "going through" tough times to really appreciate what we do have. For many of those who have dealt with being covetous (like myself in the past), it takes circumstances of adversity to put our priorities into perspective. Going through adversity often helps us to make that pivotal decision to finally say "I give up Lord...You take over". That's often what the Lord wants to see is a surrendered heart to Him which is honestly the best place to be for the Lord to use His people. It took the prodigal Son to eat from the same pen as the pigs before he came to his senses to return to his fathers home (Luke 15:16,17). It took Nebuchadnezzar eating grass with the wild oxen and be outside his palace long enough for his nails to grow long before he came to his senses (Dan 4:33,34). I can't imagine how it took 7 years for this king to live under these harsh conditions before he came to his senses. Will it take that long for us to finally "get it"? It takes many of us to become frusterated with being so pre-occupied with our own agendas to realize that everything we work for or long for just to accumulate or gain "more toys", a bigger home, more furnishings (beyond what we really need) is futile and meaningless. It often takes a person to become "sick and tired" to make the necessary changes in life that finally pulls out the weeds that choke our relationship with Christ. Just as one of the parables of the seeds Christ talks to His Disciples about (Matt 13:7,22). Many people often remain frusterated because they keep fighting against their conscience of what God is trying to tell them rather then surrendering to His will for their lives. When the Israelites complained to God and Moses because they were tired of manna from Heaven and they wanted to eat meat. So God gave them what they wanted, but they got to the point that they were up to their nostrils in meat and finally made them sick (Num 11:20). Sometimes God needs to make us sick of things that will turn our hearts to seek His will and turn away from covetousness. The times when we are often frusterated or going through adversity is normally when a person evaluates the importance or purpose in his/her own life. These circumstances is what is necessary to cause a person to focus on the end result and question themselves: What it is we want to accomplish? What is the purpose to all of my labours and ambitions? If we are frusterated, are we focusing our ambitions and accomplishments in life more then having a rich relationship with God? As for myself from what I have learned through trials, I looked at the end result of what I want to accomplish in life, it made me question my priorities and my relationship with God. If circumstances remained at ease, I would not have the relationship with God today like I am blessed to have. When a person gets comfortable in their circumstances, God can't do much. It takes a hungry and surrendered heart for God to see His power working through you. Christ talks about a servant who was compared to someone who is covetous, yet this servant had more then enough to be content. This particular man had all he needed, but wasn't satisfied. He wanted more. He wanted to build bigger barns and just to be satisfied by eating and drinking to be merry, just so he could live a life of ease (Luke 12:16-21). When that is our goal, we need to ask further...then what? There was no mention about having any concern about the things of God. Then Christ tells His Disciples by saying about this man: "You fool, your soul is going to be required of you this night". This mans labour was all in vain and he lost everything simply because he was rich towards the ambitions of this world, but not rich in relationship with God. When we will take the time to evaluate our lives, our ambitions, we need to ask ourselves: Where am I placing my priority in life? What is the purpose in all of this? It took adversity and frusteration in my life to become sober about this and because of it, my decision to follow God was an easy decision because I realized the vanity of being ambitious when I failed to put God first in my life. Therefore, we need to stop fighting against adversities in our life because it may be just what we need to help us focus on what is really important. God may be calling some of you out of this bondage of covetousness to discover its worthlessness. If you haven't read Ecclessiates, I would highly recommend it and see where you may fit in all of this. It only comes when we put God first in our lives and make it our lifes priority to seek to serve Him and allow Him to govern our lives as our Lord and personal Saviour that rewards man with that joy unspeakable and inner peace that the world cannot ever satisfy. Coveting the things of this world will never satisfy ones soul. A person who labours for the things of this world will one day realize all was done in vanity which will end up having nothing but regret. On the other hand, God promises that those who labour for the Lord will never be in vain (1 Cor 15 58) and will never come with any regret. God only helps those who invite Him to do so. In the Matchless Name of Jesus Richard Ministry Encourager Answers2Prayer http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife http://www.answers2prayer.org/