Covetousness is when you are so eagerly desirous of wealth or material possessions that you are willing to do anything, even committing sin, to get it. In Colossians 3:5 , the Bible calls covetousness idolatry:
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”

In other words, the covetous fellow is not a child of God, but an idol worshipper.

There are many people in the Bible who covetousness ruined. Lot, for example, was aman who was picked up by Abraham. He became rich because of his association with Abraham. When his wealth grew and there was contention between his servants and those of Abraham, the issue revealed what had always been within Lot: a covetous heart.

“And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.”
Genesis 13:10

Ordinarily, when Abraham asked Lot to choose first which side he wanted to go to, he should have said, No, Uncle. You are the one who brought me along with you. You are the one who has been taking care of me all this while. You choose which side you want and I will go to the other side. At the end of the day, his covetousness brought him trouble because he lost all that he took to and even gained at Sodom. He lost his wife too.

Covetousness is so terrible that it can destroy a man completely. Check yourself to know whether you are having some inordinate ambition to be rich. Kill that ambition now and look to God, trusting Him to make you rich in His own way. Only the blessings of God will make you rich without adding sorrow to your life (Proverbs 10:22).
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.