Spirit
Today’s Change Journey verse is Luke 12:15. It is the last verse in the series “Set Your Affection on Things Above.”
“And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (Luke 12:15)
Covetousness must be a very serious sin. Jesus said, “Take heed, and beware.” Colossians 3:5 says that covetousness is idolatry. That is written only three verses after God’s command to “Set your affection on things above.” (See Colossians 3:2)
Dangers of Covetousness
Covetousness turns my eyes off God and focuses them on the world. This can bring several dangers.
1. Covetousness can keep me from bearing fruit and growing in Christ (See Luke 8:14)
2. Covetousness will keep me from being ready when Jesus comes again (Luke 21:34)
3. Covetousness can cause me to deny God (Job 31:24-28)
4. Covetousness will bring upon me God’s displeasure (Psalm 10:3)
5. Covetousness will cause me to trust in my own wisdom, but worldly riches do not last. That which I trusted in would soon be taken away. (Proverbs 23:4,5)
Reasons to Avoid Covetousness
Covetousness, according to Colossians 3:5, is idolatry. It occurs when I desire earthly things and set my heart upon them. This sin comes about as a result of trusting in my own wisdom and seeking after treasures that will perish. In Psalm 62:10 God warns, “…if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.” Then God explains why, “…power belongeth unto God. 12Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.” (vs. 11b and 12)
1. Riches have no power. Power belongs to God. He can give riches, or He can take them away at any time. It is vain to trust in riches because I can neither gain them nor keep them by my own power, nor can they keep themselves. They are bestowed by God.
2. Trusting in God rather than riches brings God’s mercy and reward (See Psalm 62:11,12)
3. Inclining my heart to God’s testimonies rather than to covetousness turns away reproach from my life, helps me avoid seeing things I should not see, and brings revival to my heart. Trusting in God’s judgments brings stability as it establishes God’s word in my heart. (See Psalm 119:36-40)
4. Avoiding covetousness allows me to live longer (Proverbs 28:16)
5. Avoiding covetousness is necessary because I cannot take any worldly riches with me when I die. Covetousness leads to all kinds of evil, but trusting in God leads to righteousness, godliness, endurance in the fight of faith, the reward of eternal life, and a good testimony before others. (See I Timothy 6:7-12)
The benefits of covetousness are short and fleeting. The benefits of trusting God are eternal. Trusting God leads to joy and happiness.
O God, Incline my heart after Thee!
Body:
Sleep
One very important area of health is sleep. Oh, wonderful sleep! Sometimes it seems quite elusive. Ecclesiastes 5:12a says, “The sleep of a labouring man is sweet.” If I am lazy, I may not sleep well. On the other hand, lack of sleep keeps me from laboring effectively. Sufficient sleep improves concentration, helps prevent fatigue, and increases effectiveness of daily labor.
Sleep has been a difficult area for me the last several years. My normal sleep hours are from 11:00 p.m. (11:15 at the latest) to 7:00 a.m. It is easy, though, to get distracted at night and find a lot of little things that “just have to get done” and try to finish them before bed time. Then I have been waking up for a while in the night. On top of that, I have been having severe muscle spasms at night. When morning rolls around, I wake up around 6:30 to 6:45. All these things have really interrupted my sleep.
Retraining:
The thing I’m working on now is retraining my body to sleep. I don’t know if this will help anyone else, but I will share here how I am trying to retrain my body to sleep.
1. I am disciplining myself to make every effort possible to get to bed by 11:15 and no later.
2. Various theories have been thrown around about the muscle spasms, but they seem to be caused by pinched nerves in my spine. They are triggered by certain movements or by lying in a certain position for an extended period of time. So, I am learning to sleep in different positions and to avoid certain movements and stretching certain ways when I wake up in the night or first thing in the morning.
3. If I wake up at 6:30 or 6:45, I try to simply go back to sleep. The best way for me to do this is to just like still and to make sure covers are pulled over me if I am cold. I look at the clock and tell myself that I have another 15 to 30 minutes to sleep and that it is not time to get up. This helps me to relax. My body is very slow at getting the hint, but this does seem to be starting to help. Hopefully my body will soon learn to get back into a regular sleep pattern.