By Kevin Harris, pastor at Illawarra Community Baptist Church of Dapto, located 15 minutes south of Wollongong, NSW.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Colossians 3:5
My last devotional centred on idolatry. This verse equates covetousness with idolatry.
This word ‘covetousness’ is to desire more. It is to be eager for gain.
This is a perfect description of our human nature. From the womb, we want more. More to eat. More toys. A new this or that. The older we get, the more we accumulate. As our wealth increases, so do the houses we build to hold all of our accumulated treasures. A house used to have a one car garage. Now we want more. Sometimes we get storage units because our houses are crammed with so much stuff.
Advertising is designed to coax us to covet. As do commercials, bus wraps, billboards, shop windows, junk mail, model homes, and car showrooms. It’s pretty hard to walk through a normal day without being coaxed to covet.
But God calls it idolatry.
Remember, idolatry is when I place anything before God in my life.
If God hates it so much, then what’s the opposite of covetousness? Whatever it is, no doubt God loves it.
The answer is contentment, which is when I’m pleased with whatever God pleases to give me.
And yes, God loves contentment. He says in 1 Timothy 6:6, ‘But godliness with contentment is great gain.’
At the root of all virtues is humility. Someone has said that the aroma of humility is contentment. When I am submissive in my place under God, then whether He gives me little or much, I can be content.
Blind at six weeks old, Fanny Crosby, the famous hymn-writer, wrote these words when she was eight years old:
Father, as I flee from the stylish idolatry of our day, help me to flee to You. I place myself in my rightful place under Your Lordship, and rest in the knowledge that whatever my lot in life, it comes from You. Knowing that You are always wise, always powerful, and always good, I rest in Your plan for me. Both in the things I like and the things I dislike about my life, I rejoice that You know best. In the Name of the Lord Jesus I pray this, Amen.
Kevin Harris pastors the Illawarra Community Baptist Church, located in Dapto, a suburb of Wollongong, NSW.