Covetousness - Desiring Something More Than God

How would you define the sin of coveting?  I've typically understood it to mean desiring things that you don't have.  The dictionary definition says to covet is to "desire something eagerly, especially something belonging to another person."  Exploring the origins of this sin of coveting brings us to the issue of contentment.  Back when I was reading through the study book on the Westminster Shorter Catechism it spent some time talking through the implications of coveting, saying that coveting begins with a dissatisfied heart.  The biblical requirement they say is to have full contentment with what God has given us.  The passage used to support that statement (which I agree with) is in Philippians 4 where Paul says, "I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am... In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need..."

The study book continues to elaborate on how coveting can lead to all other sins.  If you want some material thing bad enough, but can't buy your own, you steal it.  If you want your neighbors wife more than your own, it can lead to adultery.  If you really want your country to be governed in a radically different way, you start a revolution and harm and kill everyone who gets in the way of that to get things how you want them to be.  

This morning while reading Future Grace, John Piper went even farther on the issue of coveting and how it relates to unbelief in everything that God is for us in Christ.  Piper says that "Covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God."  I think putting it that way carries even more weight than simply being discontent with our circumstances as we usually think of them.  And if you think about it, Adam and Eve's original sin caused them to forsake the contentment that they had in God as they experienced it in the Garden of Eden.

In America, contentment means that we have everything we want (which is never enough).  We think that our wants and often times our lusts are things that we are entitled to.  Our concept or picture of what it looks like to be taken care of and have everything we need to be content is totally flawed.  This problem in our perspective taints how we interpret God's promises.  Take a passage like 1 Corinthians 10:13 for example.  "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."  If we're looking through American lens, contentment to most people probably means having at least a decent paying job with an average benefits package, a dwelling with enough room for everyone to have their own space, we get to eat pretty much whatever we're hungry for, and if we're Christians we also have a freedom to worship how and where we choose and our faith doesn't conflict with our desires.  Piper does a great job of clarifying what "all your needs" really means in that context in Philippians.  It means "all that you need for God-glorifying contentment."  

I wonder what "God-glorifying contentment" looks like, and how we can pursue and maintain that (which would include letting God help us with that) in our lives?  Certainly it starts with a change of heart and perspective (contentment in God could look very different than my list in the last paragraph).  If we take Jesus and Paul's warnings seriously we will be sure to flee coveting or anything that leads to it and stay content in God, or we could find ourselves wandering away from the faith and impaling ourselves with many pains (1 Tim 6:10).  I'll try to think and study a bit more on what we need to do to keep from coveting and more importantly what it looks like in a practical way to be content in God.  Feel free to share what you think this might look like.