How’s your Christmas shopping going? This Christmas God is giving all of us some presents. Maybe you’re thinking, I know, it’s Jesus. Well, it is Jesus but God is giving us more presents than Jesus and He’s letting us open them right now. So let’s take the first present, take off the bow, rip off the paper and throw it on the floor (who ends up picking up the paper?) and see what God has given us.
Hmmm… Inside this box is a fragment of stone that says, “Thou shalt not covet.” That’s a present, “Thou shalt not covet”? Yup, and a great gift it is. This present means you don’t have to keep up with the Joneses. You don’t have to envy and try to get what they have. Better car, nicer home, handsome husband, pretty wife… With this gift from God you know that the grass is greener on your side of the fence. Sure, there are things that you’d like to have but this present frees you from being enslaved to desire for what other people have. “Thou shalt not covet” is God’s gift to you of contentment.
Instead of thinking of the commandments as ten rules, ten downers, ten “don’t have any fun,” think of the commandments as gifts from God for our well-being. Then why does He say, “Thou shalt not?” Simple. He doesn’t want us to break the wonderful present He gives us. “Thou shalt not covet” is God’s gift of contentment.
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