Good Morning My Friends! Time to get dressed again. Have you chosen what you’ll wear today? Let’s see what God’s wants us to put on today.
Since we’re striving to intentionally live God’s way, we need to understand the things we do that cause problems for us. Envy is one of those things.
Naughty List
Yesterday, I mentioned how I noticed patience is on the virtues list. Today, I noticed envy is on the naughty list. Check this out:
“They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,” (Romans 1:29, NIV).
“…sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly” (Mark 7:21-22, NIV).
I won’t be surprised if God addresses some of these in the coming days, but for today, He’s stressing envy.
When we envy we feel unhappiness over the good fortune of someone else, but there’s more. When we envy, we also desire the same good fortune.
Envy is very closely related to jealously and covetedness. It actually encompasses both simultaneously.
When we have a painful awareness of someone else’s possessions or advantages, and we have a desire to have them too, we have then sinned with the nasty sin of envy.
How do we get envy in the first place?
What Goes In, Must Come Out
I know we all know that whatever we eat, must come out. Right?
The same process happens with other things too, including envy.
Things get into us through our eyes and ears. This is why we have to so careful what we allow ourselves to read, watch, and participate in. Because once it’s inside of us, it will come out of us.
If it’s naughty stuff inside of us, well, it comes out in some very nasty ways:
“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:20-21, NIV)
“What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them” (Matthew 15:11, NIV).
If we feel unhappy when someone else is blessed in some way, it’s because we have the sin of envy inside of us.
We need to be very careful because envy will bring about disorder and lots of other nasty living.
We don’t want to be intentional with nasty living. We want to be intentional living good and faithful lives for God.
Get Rid of Envy
Did you catch the consequences of envy?
“What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” (Matthew 15:11, NIV).
“All these evils come from inside and defile a person” (Mark 7:20-21, NIV).
Defile means tarnish, spoil, corrupt, dishonor. So when envy comes out of us, it’s tarnishing us. If you read my post about my rings being tarnished, you understand what God is saying here. Envy is like a chemical that erodes our souls, and makes us ugly.
Envy also causes disorder and leads to every evil practice.
“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:16, NIV).
Yikes! I don’t know about you, but I do not desire those things.
Goodwill to All
Instead of envy, let’s choose goodwill.
When we have a kindly feeling of approval and support of others. When we aren’t jealous of others good fortune. We don’t desire what they have. We are letting goodwill rule us.
God wants us to express goodwill toward others. That means we have a good attitude toward them especially when something good happens to them.
Goodwill also means we serve others cheerfully, with enthusiasm, wholeheartedly and with a smile.
“With goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men,” (Ephesians 6:7, NKJV).
We do this because as we choose to let this kind of attitude come out of us. We really are blessing others and serving the Lord too.
Let’s serves others with goodwill today.
Practical Application
There are two things we need to do today.
First, we need to get rid of envy:
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” (1 Peter 2:1, NIV).
In other words, don’t choose to wear envy today. Yes, you do have a choice. You do not need to be unhappy or jealous because someone else is blessed.
Remember how fear affects your body and brain? I’m not a neuroscientist, but I suspect envy has some physical consequences as well.
Reframe your thoughts and be grateful that someone else is being blessed. Because we know that being grateful helps us feel less anxiety, less depressed, and have fewer aches and pains. Gratitude also helps us be happier.
Being happier is God’s will for us.
The second thing we need to do today is put on goodwill. Let’s choose to have an attitude of cheerfulness and enthusiasm should someone else have good fortune. Let’s put a smile on our faces. That’s what goodwill looks like, and I will say that’s very attractive on everyone, much more than a tarnished soul.
We should be wanting to be like Jesus, who came to earth to save us and to bring goodwill to us.
Today, let us all choose to say:
[callout]“Glory to God in the highest, And on :earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14, NKJV).[/callout]
Just for Today
Refrain from Envy. Embrace Goodwill!
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