Contentment and Covetousness

       Are you content the way things are in your life?  I could be content with things but advertising is always placing a temptation in my mind by showing me the newest and best things that are now available.  One of the things I seem to accumulate is the ball point pen.  I have a number of them.  In fact, I have two containers that are filled to the maximum and I can't get another pen in them.  Now, I can't possible use all of them.  Of course, these are not your usual bag of "bic sticks."  They pens with rubber finger spots, some with lights, some with glowing parts and one that when you bounce it, the large bulb on the end starts blinking.  Now, I also have pens that have a rubber bulb on the end that I can use on my phone and Kindle with their touch screens.  There are always things that are new and the world system knows how to make you notice what they are.  When you see them, you soon think that you can't get along with out them.  You are no longer content with what you have.  Hebrews 13:5 says, "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." 
       One man said, "covetousness is the opposite of contentment."  The words of the Ten commandments says in Exodus 20:17, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."  It doesn't take long to see that to covet something is definitely a problem and it is going to begin with what we see.  We can see a new ball point pen, a new car, a new dress, a new house, a new back yard.  Well, you think about it and it becomes a desire that is there and it removes your contentment.  You are no longer satisfied with the way things are and you want them to change.  There was a now well known man in the Old Testament, called Achan.  He had a desire with some certain items that were present during the battle with Jericho.  We see him seeing them, desiring them, and finally taking them and hiding them in his tent.  Undoubtedly, the lesson is there for us because that is the process that exists in the lives of every believer.  Our contentment is shattered when we see, desire and finally take.  The process is now complete until the next time.  The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we are to be content with the things that we have and certainly we have been blessed beyond measure.  If you lives could exist without coveting, it would be great, but that isn't the way things are.  The above verse goes on to give us one of the greatest and most profound promises in the Scripture.  It says, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."  No matter what goes on in your life, no matter what disaster occurs, no matter what bad news you get, God has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  Praise God today for the fact that He is always with us.