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Good morning friend,
It was refreshing for me to stop and meditate on each commandment. Each of them spoke directly to my heart. They also got me to look inward and question some thoughts and challenged my feelings in several areas. I am a strong believer that we can always improve from within for God's glory.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
"You shall not covet 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 is your neighbor's." Exodus 20:17
10. The Tenth Commandment is about Contentment.
God instructs us not to covet because He knows it can entrap us into even greater sin. To covet means to crave or desire, especially in excessive or improper ways. The Tenth Commandment does not tell us that all of our desires are immoral. It tells us that some desires are wrong. Coveting is an immoral longing for something that is not rightfully ours. That is usually because the object of our desire already belongs to someone else. But coveting can also include our wanting far more than we would legitimately deserve or that would be our rightful share. The focus of the Tenth Commandment is that we are not to illicitly desire anything that already belongs to others. The opposite of coveting is a positive desire to help others preserve and protect their blessings from God. We should rejoice when other people are blessed. Our desire should be to contribute to the well being of others, to make our presence in their lives a blessing to them. The last of the Ten Commandments is aimed directly at the heart and mind of every human being. In prohibiting coveting, it defines not so much what we must do but how we should think. It asks us to look deep within ourselves to see what we are on the inside. As with each of the previous nine Commandments, it is directed toward our relationships. It specifically deals with the thoughts that threaten those relationships and can potentially hurt ourselves and our neighbours. Therefore, it is fitting that the formal listing of these Ten foundational commands, which define the love of God, should end by focusing on our hearts as the wellspring of our relationship problems. From within comes the desires that tempt us and lead us astray. Source: www.the-ten-commandments.org
Grateful for God's word and for its impact in my life!
Julieta Reyes Flores
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