Not Alone OR We Are In the Same Sinking Boat

We go back to 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you, except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” “…such as is common to man” is the key today.

It is hard to tell the difference between needs and wants. Everyone faces that challenge, knowingly or unknowingly. Admittedly, there are people out there blissfully ignorant of their own slavery, to them needs and wants are interchangeable. Both are causing them to become more enslaved. Dealing with envy debt requires learning to tell the difference between needs and wants. One has to learn to recognize the sin and temptations.

I remember back when I started college after high school. A good friend went to the same college. Her father gave her a credit card for ‘emergencies’. The first couple of months she was faithful to her responsibility. She did not use the card for anything. Then it happened. She had an emergency. Her car broke down and she had to have it repaired. That was the first time she used the card. After that, it was amazing how many things became ‘emergencies’. That was more than 20 years ago, she learned a lot from that lesson. Now, she is not a slave. More recently, a friend gave his daughter a cell phone ‘for emergencies’. After the first $200 phone bill, he gave her three quarters and told her to learn where the nearest pay phones were.

In talking with others, it appears that each of us has a particular blind spot. There is some area where Satan has a good foothold in keeping us from seeing the needs from envy or covetousness. It might be small or large, simple or complex, but it is there. A friend realized his ‘blind spot’ was presents. He ‘had’ to give the ‘best’ gifts. Whether it was an anniversary, birthday, Christmas or whatever, his had to be the ‘best’. It was a sobering thought when he realized that his giving was his sin. What is more, it really knocked him over when he realized that he was giving so that he was envied.

Consider my friend for a moment. He envied others giving wonderful presents. His answer was to give the best presents so that HE was the object of envy. How often do we do the same ourselves? We envy or covet what someone else has, so we go out and ‘get’ something bigger or better, so that we are the object of envy. Where does it stop? There will ALWAYS be someone that has better, bigger, more, nicer whatever’s. There will ALWAYS be someone we can envy. The question is Do we have to? The answer is no. We need to go back to Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

We are all tempted to covet and envy. Our society revolves around it. Every year a new model, fashion, version, etc. comes out. Satan’s Society tells us we HAVE to have it. It is a constant competition to be ‘one up’ on everyone else. That is envy and covetousness, and it inundates our daily lives.

The first step in dealing with sin is to recognize it for what it is: SIN