Does covetousness motivates you?

In December, just before Christmas, I woke up feeling agitated. It was strange; I could feel this oppression around about me but did not know where it was coming from. I knew how fortunate I was as I have no young children to provide for; I am not in full-time or part-time education; I have no debt collectors knocking at my door demanding money; I have no serious health issues; I have people around me who loved me and I am in paid employment. However, I woken up in the early hours of the morning angry and frustrated. In fact, all I really wanted to do was to pull the covers over my head and sleep. I said to myself: “hopefully when I can see daylight I will be able to face the world”.

It was while I was under the covers that the Holy Spirit dropped a word in my spirit as to why so many people are suffering from depression, anxiety and stress especially around Christmas time. Why young men are killing themselves with guns and knives, and selling crack and cocaine on the streets. The television is filled with advertisers motivating people to buy presents and gifts for their loved ones, many people would like to be able to shop till they drop, but their desires cannot be met due to lack of finances. The Holy Spirit highlighted that many of the symptoms that cause people to suffer is due to, direct or indirect, covetousness.

Covetousness is defined in Luke 12:15 (Amplified Version) as the immoderate desire for wealth and the greedy longing to have more. These desires are provoked directly or indirectly through the wish for promotion at work or even at church where the emphasis is on financial prosperity and material blessing, rather than the love, presence and the power of God!

Indirect covetousness has developed through the bombardment of the media and advertisements and the desire to want more, not necessarily to want what people have, but to have the desire to want what they see that people have, either through their favourite celebrities lifestyles or advertisements through the media. Extreme covetousness can so blind a person’s emotions that they can resort to deceit, treachery and self-harm and even murder as we can see with some of the youth today.

I realised that I, like most people who go to church, had three main goals in life: 1. to love and serve God with all our heart, soul and might; 2. to be debt free; and 3. to have all their hearts desires including health and wealth (prosperity). Yet as I analysed these desires, I realised that it could be these very same desires that is causing us stress. We do not want what people have, but we are motivated to compete and to want to accumulate wealth and possessions of our own, but is there anything wrong with this?

If I were to tell you that I was blessed you would automatically feel the need to be blessed too, a natural human trait. There is nothing wrong with this desire in itself. In fact, you would be pleased that I had been blessed, and you would want God to eventually bless you too, almost the same desire as Cain with his brother Abel. The desire to be blessed can be overwhelming which in this case of Cain led to him killing his brother.

Today, if you were to equate blessings with income or possessions, then the more money or possessions a person had, then the more blessed they would be. If my income and possessions kept on increasing yet my brother and sisters in Christ were still living a state of poverty, how do your think that they would they feel? They may even feel God did not love them or that they had sinned in someway or their faith was lacking and their sin was blocking them from their blessings. Yet this could be furthest from the truth.

I believe that Christians today are slowly and unconsciously being mesmerised into a state of envy or covetousness. In Exodus 20:17 it states: "You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s."

Technical, it could be said that we do not directly covet what belongs to our neighbours but we are encouraged to covet through advertising in the media. In fact, this is the purpose of advertising in newspapers, magazines, on television and on the radio, it is to make people want to have what they cannot afford or to desire those things which they believe they need therefore find a way of obtaining it. It is like a carrot on a stick to a donkey. The goal is always out of reach; and if we cannot reach it, we become depressed, angry and frustrated. We are made to believe that our lives are incomplete without these products or services and they become like additives in food or even a drug. They make us crave after those things which we do not require, usually against our conscious will.

We are told that we are either: too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, too dark, or too pale. There’s always a solution out there to make us feel better or to remedy the situation even if it means surgery. We are told that what we presently have in our possession is insufficient, and we should want more.

The bible tell us that we are in the world but not of the world, but as soon as we turn on the television or open a magazine or read a newspaper or walk through our high streets we are being influence by articles, talk shows, sales promotions, bill boards or posters, telling us that our lifestyle is incomplete. This is then compounded when we go to church and hear testimonies of material prosperity, which makes us feel we are lacking in someway. We are constantly trying to be perfect and to be holy as God is holy, yet we are destined to fail in our life time. Christians are eager to be blessed by God but never seeming to quite get it right because of our lack of faith, lack of obedience or both, hoping for perfection only when we get to Heaven.

Covetousness, albeit indirect, motivates most men and women. It puts pressure on our marriages, our relationships, our friendships. It puts pressure on us at work, at church and even during our moments of leisure time with our families. There is a physical and psychological battle between how should spend our time and our money.

As the singer Madonna said: “You know that we are living in a material world;
and I am a material girl.” Imagine being married to a material girl, with material children, in material house, with material friends, in a material job and in a material driven church.

However, God gives us a way of escape. It is not the amount of money or possessions or the lack of money or possessions that defines us in God eyes. What does define us is how our Heavenly Father sees us and sees our hearts! In Proverbs 4:23 it says “Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.” Other version states: “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.” [GNB]

This extremely important proverb which helped me to realign myself with God and I also believe this will help us reduce the pressure that we are under. We need to protect our heart from the material world in which we live and if we find that this world starts to infiltrate the church of God we need to protect our hearts even more. Not harden our heart; protect our heart!

The question that I am going to ask you is: “Does covetousness motivates you?” Or in other words: “Does money motivates you?”

To find out the answer, try this test at home, alone. Turn off your television, your computer, your radio, and remove every magazine, newspaper or book from your sight. Take your phone off the hook and sit down in silence. Just wait on the Lord and notice what happens. What comes to your mind? Do you become uncomfortable? Do you feel like you are wasting time? Do you feel that you should be doing something? How long can you do this before you are interrupted, you fall asleep or something comes into your mind and you have to act? Psalms 46:10 says: “Be still, and know that I am God.”

All the great men in the bible including Jacob, Moses, David and Jesus had life changing encounters with God when they were on their own.

I challenge you to spend some time on your own to “Be still, and know God” and protect your heart!

© Frederick Clarke
Executive (Minister) Director
Mighty Men of Valour
March 2008


We would love to hear your comments/feedback on this and previous articles.
Please email: mailbag@str8up.co.uk