Thursday, March 25, 2010

Fill Yourself With His Spirit

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

-- Exodus 20:17

The men on a radio talk show the other night said we covet things because we aren't content with our own lives. That's why we can never have enough, whether it's money, possessions or power. It made a lot of sense.

Our society really isn't geared toward accepting what we already have. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements promising that if we only have the products they're pitching we'll be happy.

It never works, of course. That hole we're trying to fill inside of ourselves can only be filled by God. So we keep acquiring things. We get a new car. We buy a new outfit. We fight until we beat everyone out for that promotion. And still it's not enough. Nothing is ever enough. We still want what we do not have.

The trio on the radio consisted of a preacher, a Christian therapist and a deejay. One of the men -- I'm not sure which one -- talked about the difficulties of witnessing to people who have a great deal of wealth. They don't feel like they "need" Jesus because they have so much material wealth. They are so accustomed to filling that hole with more wealth and power that they can't imagine anything else.

Our society supports this. We judge people, including ourselves, based on what they own or by their job title. Face it, we look at the person who drives a new BMW differently that the person who drives a 20-year-old clunker. The vehicles both serve the same purpose but we're programmed to want something better than we or our neighbor has. It's an endless cycle of need and greed.

God only wanted what was best for us when He told us not to covet what other people have. It will only make us unhappy. The thing is the more we seek God, the more His Spirit fills us and the less we "need" material things to be content.