1What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passionsa are at war within you?b 2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4You adulterous people!c Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
{James 4:1-9}
The quickest road to unhappiness is comparison. We should always be thankful for what God has blessed us with. God is the gift giver and supplies our needs--not us.{See Philippians 4:19} God knows what we need even before we ask Him. We ask, but do not receive because we ask wrongly to spend it on our own passions. "You adulterous people!" exclaims James in the Bible. God's spirit yearns jealously.
He chooses to bless us. Not us. We don't provide for ourselves. He does.
Covetousness is sin. It's wanting what someone else has and it's pretty much telling God that I know what I need and He doesn't. That's pride, folks. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
The good news is that God is always willing to forgive us of covetousness or pride when we confess our sins to Him (See 1 John 1:9)--when we agree that we don't know what we need and He does. With that there is freedom and joy and even happiness because you're realizing what you truly have.
In essence, we're saying bless me with something else.
Comparison is also jealousy. Not being thankful for what you have. I think comparison, covetousness, and jealousy all go hand in hand.
17“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}
It's our job to be thankful for what we do have--not coveting what someone else has!
Thank you, Lord for revealing this to me!
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