Green With Envy

'Not he who has little, but he who wishes for more is poor.' Envy hates others for perceived advantages.

Have you ever envied something another person has? I don't believe I have ever met a person who has not experienced this emotion. Speaking from a woman's point of view, I can easily get caught up in the comparison game. I have envied other's clothes, homes, careers, bodies, parenting skills, husbands, personalities, and I could continue to fill this entire blog with an endless list.

Webster defines envy as a feeling of discontent and ill will because of an other's advantages; a resentful dislike of another who has something that one desires.

Since the focus of envy is people; it is not unsual that others get hurt. If fact Galatians 5:19 - 21 gives a descriptive list of the result of envy.

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:

repetitive, loveless, cheap sex

a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage

frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness

trinket gods

magic-show religion

paranoid loneliness

cutthroat competition

all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants

a brutal temper

an impotence to love or be loved

divided homes and divided lives

small-minded and lopsided pursuits

the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival

uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions

ugly parodies of community

I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom

As I review that very pointed list the result of my envy is revealed. I think of times when I have envied other's husbands and what I 'see on the outside'. This in turn has caused me to set standards for my husband that when not met, I get angry and frustrated in the relationship to the point of thinking we should not be together. Fights took place and viscous words were spoken.

I have made material purchases in pursuit of frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness. This in turn had caused me to incur debt, which in turn put a financial hardship on our family.

I have envied other's bodies, becoming so dissatisfied with my own that that lack of confidence has been taken out in other forms of frustration on my children.

Envy is a continuous focus on what I perceive that I do not have and in turn will result in hurting others. Envy undermines any hope of contentment in your life. For our own stability in life and for the sake of others, we can not tolerate envy's lodging within us. It is a spiritual cancer that demands radical treatment.

I would ask that you reveal today what things you are envious of and how that has resulted in hurting another. Repent your sins and receive forgiveness and strive every day to pursue a life of contentment in what God has provided for you. He will always take care of everything that you need.

Blessings,

Jill