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VS. April 10, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on April 10, 2025


EXODUS 20:17 | 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

 

PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7 | 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

The tenth commandment, not to covet, puts the issue of gratitude versus envy at the conclusion of the divine commands. Envy within communities makes relationships and property insecure, for we   always covet before we steal or violate. Theft and adultery are both related to the psychological state of envy. And these two crimes lead to insecurity and to anxiety. A community without covetousness or envy would be one with stable families and little crime.

 

We are to learn to frame our requests and hence, our desires, as prayers that begin with gratitude. Thanksgiving is the antidote to envy and the break on unfettered desire. God meets our requests wisely, with our ultimate good in mind, increasing our gratitude and our capacity to enjoy our lives. Happiness is directly related to our trust in God’s provision and our gratitude for it.

 

Do you fight material anxiety?

 

 

Gracious God,

Grow my trust in Your wisdom and Your provision. Help me surround and ground my requests with thanksgiving.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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