Morning

February 13

Exodus 20:17 ¹⁷"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."

The first five commandments deal with our relationship with God. The last five deal with our relationship with mankind. They are very clear outward actions like not murdering, not stealing, and not lying. Every one is an indication of a problem with the heart. This last one, however, deals directly with the desires of the heart. The Law is a schoolteacher that brings us to Christ. When we consider this last one, we realize that something in us must change. It is not an action that we do but our very desires that must change.

We can want to change our desires, but new desires come out of a new heart. A new heart can be given to us only by the indwelling life of the Son of God. He's the only One that can fix our "wanter." The old heart is always thinking a little more will satisfy, but no matter how much more we get, it never does. When Jesus' life indwells us in an unhindered way, we find the problem, we call "keeping up with the Joneses," is gone. In its place is a desire for the heavenly. We are glad for the prosperity of the Jones' family, but we desire things above. . "Set your affections on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1)

When we sense ourselves breaking this tenth commandment, we are being warned that we are stepping out of the new life of the Lord in us and back into the old self that is motivated by greed, which is idolatry. Then we should yield again to the new life and move back into a walk in the Spirit. Is your "wanter" fixed?

Consider: Are you hearing the schoolteacher as He points you to the life of the Son of God in you?