Let’s begin this lesson with learning what envy is.
In the Greek translation the word envy means “to burn with zeal,” or literally “to be heated or to boil over with envy.”
According to Holman’s Bible Dictionary envy is “painful or resentful awareness of another’s advantage joined with the desire to possess the same advantage.” The advantage may concern material goods or social status.
The Bible agrees with the above definition.
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor.
This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 4:4 ESV
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Proverbs 14:30
Envy is an emotion inside of us that continues to build up resent when someone else gets or has something that we want. When we are craving what the other person has, instead of thanking God for what He has provided to us, all we are doing is hurting ourselves.
In Mark 7:21 it tells us that “within our heart” is the source of envy. Our heart is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate and decide. Within our heart is where envy is triggered and it begins to show it’s ugliness once it is set in motion in our thoughts and feelings.
I personally have struggled recently with this issue of envy in a particular area that I will share with you. Doctors have told my daughter that she would never be able to have a baby. When I was told this, I cried for days and, still at times, have moments of breakdowns. Every time I see pictures of her friends who are pregnant (and some of them even pregnant with twins), I immediately begin talking to God—maybe you could really call it complaining to God—as to why it is not my daughter who is the one having a baby…or concerning the girl having twins…why God could You not have given one of those babies to my daughter?
My envy in this is that I want to be a grandmother!! I was only thinking about me and what I wanted. I did not sit down and truly talk to God about what He wants for her and her husband’s life.
This is their life, not mine. I need to step aside and allow God to move and work in the way He has chosen. When, and if, this is His desire for their life God can overrule what the doctors have stated.
What I struggled to see was that God chose to bless these other couples, and it was the time for me to give thanks to Him for this wonderful blessing of life and not pout in envy because it was them and not my daughter (and me).
Envy festers inside us and keeps us stirred up. We must stay on our knees in prayer and not allow Satan the upper hand in this area by keeping these envious thoughts at the forefront of our minds. When we are envying, how can we love?
Love will make us blind to the things that other people have. Love doesn’t have any time to envy because we should be celebrating what God is doing.
“True love is God”, He laid himself down for us and He put us first before Himself; that is what we are to do for others as well. We are called to love not envy, and to realize that everything is done in His timing and at His will…not ours!!!
The cure for envy is love because love pushes envy out of our hearts. Envy is absent in our hearts when love is present. To love is to stop comparing.
I am so thankful God has shown me that I was harboring envy. He helped me to see that not only was I being resentful towards others, (not even wanting to see them because of my hurts), but He also helped me to understand that IN HIS TIME is when He answers.
As I sit here thinking about envy and love, I realize the freedom I can feel and have when I lay down envy at the feet of Jesus. When I stop wanting or desiring what others have, that is when love can take over my heart and I can be content with what God has provided to me.
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Let’s pray:
Dear God,
Help us to keep our thoughts away from what others have because that’s not what You want for us. Help us to look to You and Your plans for our life and to be content with what You provide. In Your name I pray.
Amen!
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Food for thought:
Think for a moment…are there any people in your life that you envy because they have something that you don’t? Confess it to the Holy Spirit right now and ask the Lord to forgive you and let Him fill that space of envy with love!
About Beverly McCormick
Beverly, thank you for this study today. (Also it’s good to have you back! :))
I don’t think of having envy in my heart–I should examine myself more often, because when I do I find that envy raises its ugly head out of an otherwise lovely garden. Others have things that I wish I had, and when I dwell on that desire it becomes envy. Yuck, sin is ugly! The crazy thing is that they are just things and not important to our existence or even to the love and security in our home.
“God forgive me!” Amen to your prayer!
Thanks Clella, and I agree I need to do some daily inventory of my life to make sure envy hasn’t crept in. Have a blessed day!
Big hugs to you sweet sister! I’m sitting here amazed at God’s timing. Twelve years ago on this very day I sat in the doctor’s office as a 24 year old woman. I was told I would never have a biological child. As the years have ticked away, the envy has truly diminished. God has replaced it with joy and peace. I now have a nearly two year old nephew that I love with everything I have. Yes, I still have moments of envy and questioning God’s plan but in His mercy He has given me supernatural strength and peace. It has been a long, hard road to get here and it is not by my own power at all. God rescued me from a deep pit and showed me that He does have a plan and that plan is perfect. <3
Thanks for the big hug Jen, as I was writing this I thought of you and Kelly and I pray for you both daily…thanks for sharing your life with us….
Awesome Lesson this Morning! It’s so easy to focus on wanting what other people have instead of being content and thankful for what we do have!
Ain’t it the truth Michelle, we just need to refocus….have a beautiful day
Your story touched a nerve, after losing three babies to early miscarriage we made the decision not to try further. I don’t begrudge other women their babies, I just want one too! With 2 work colleagues expecting babies and a couple at church too, I seem surrounded at the moment. God has made things easier, but I’m a work in progress. I feel I let my parents down by not giving them grandkids, but when I look at my life I can see that maybe God has something else in mind for me, and my mum is a very good surrogate granny to her best friend’s grandkids, as they sadly lost their grandma last year. I’m sure you tell your daughter you love her, but let her know she hasn’t let you down.
Thanks for sharing this with me Jo, this is just precious! I do tell my daughter these things but it took me a while personally for God to repair the vessel of envy that was inside about this, and I too am still a work in progress about learning what He is teaching me, but WOW the ways and how He is teaching me is truly helping me to minister to others thru this same area…..Have a blessed day Jo and just as God showed me I will share with you, YOU ARE WHERE GOD wants you right now and when He is ready to place you somewhere else He surely will let you know….