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One of the greatest enemy’s of your life mission is envy; getting your eyes on what other people are doing rather than keeping your eyes on what the Lord wants you to do. When you start looking at other people, you're in trouble.
Galatians 5:25-26 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
If you're following God's life mission you don't have to worry about what other people think, you don't have to envy other people, because you know that God's got a life for you.
What is ENVY?
What is envy?
It is resenting God's goodness in other's lives.
It is ignoring God's goodness in my own life.
The Bible says it is very destructive and it will cause you much pain in your life.
Let me offer 4 reasons…
WHY I SHOULD AVOID ENVY?
1. Envy distracts me from my life Mission
When I get envious and start looking at other people, I loose my focus. I stop concentrating on what God wants for my life and I start looking at what other people are doing.
I say, "If I only had their spiritual gifts, their heart, their personality, their experiences, their background, their money..."
Luke 9:62 (Living Bible) "Any one who lets himself be distracted from the work I plan for him, is not fit for the kingdom of God."
Remember the 84 Olympics and Mary Decker looked over her shoulder at Zola Budd and tripped. Because she got distracted she lost the race and was disqualified. Everybody had expected her to win.
Would you agree today there are many things that can trip you up and cause you to be distracted from your life purpose? All you have to do is turn on the television. Advertisements are designed to create envy.
2. Envy causes conflict
James 4:1 "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?"
When I want what you have, that's called envy and that creates conflict. In envy I not only want my grass to be greener than yours, I want yours to turn brown!
Remember playing I’m the King of the Castle and your….! There's only room for one at the top. Adults still play this game!
They just do it in more subtle ways. Like by the kind of car they drive. Or the colour of their credit card. We play the game of one-up-man-ship. That's envy and if you get caught in that rut you will miss God's purpose for your life, because you're focusing on the wrong things.
Modern Aussie culture has been built on envy. We call it competition. In every area of society - athletics, wealth, prestige, achievement - we are taught from childhood to compare.
So we compare grades, clothes, schools, wealth, parents...
Ecclesiastes 4:4 (NIV) And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor.
It's because they envy the things other people have so they just keep overworking.
3. Envy leads to other sins
James 3:16 "For where you find envy there you find disorder and every evil practice."
Can envy cause a person to lie? To gossip? To murder? Envy causes all kinds of problems in people's lives. When you're green with envy, you're ripe for trouble!
Do you know why Jesus was crucified? Why the Pharisees crucified him? The Bible tells us in Matthew the Pharisees crucified Jesus because of envy. They were jealous. He was more popular than they were. All of a sudden all the people who had been following their religious rituals were following Him. "It was for envy they sought to send Him to the cross." It leads to all kinds of other sins.
4. Envy makes me miserable
It destroys your happiness. It's self destructive.
Proverbs 14:30 "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."
It eats you up. Envy is worse than cancer. It will eat you alive if you don't watch out.
Envy can do that. You can get so preoccupied with fanaticizing somebody else's failure that you're envious of, you become the loser in life. Envy does not work. It is simply self-destructive. It also promotes all kinds of pity parties. "He gets all the breaks. It's not fair. He's the lucky one."
Luke 12: 15 "Don't always be wishing for what you don't have."
We need to treat envy as if it were a cancer. If you had a growth on your body, you'd get it cut out as quickly as possible. Envy is a cancer that will prevent you from taking the next step in the process of building your life mission.
You have to just focus on what God wants for me, not what God wants to do in other people's lives.
HOW Can I OVERCOME ENVY?
So how do I cut envy out of my life? How do I get rid of it? Five simple suggestions or steps.
1. Resist comparing myself to others
2 Corinthians 10:12 "We do not dare classify or compare ourselves. It is not wise."
One day after the resurrection Jesus was talking to Peter and John and tells Peter, "You're going to die a violent death in serving me." Peter: "Oh?" and looking toward John "What about John? How's he going to die?" Jesus says, in the original Greek, "It's none of your business!" He says, "What's it to you? I have a plan for your life so what does it matter if John lives until I come back? I have a plan that's unique to you. Don't worry about what my plan is for somebody else."
Galatians 6:4 (Living Bible) "Let everyone be sure to do his very best. For then he will have the personal satisfaction of work done well and won't need to compare himself with somebody else."
2. Recognize my uniqueness
We spent all of the second series on that.
Psalm 139:13 (GNB) "You God, created every part of me. You put me together in my mother's womb.
The Bible says that God designed you, specifically designed you, in your mother's womb - you have designer genes.
Envy is an expression of inferiority. And it is based on insecurity. Envy occurs when you don't realize how unique you are.
There's nobody in the world like you. When you try to be like somebody else that causes envy. The antidote is to recognize your uniqueness.
Psalm 139:15 (Living Bible) "You saw me before I was born and scheduled every day of my life before I began to breathe."
God not only planned what you were going to be, but He's planned out your life. He has a plan for it.
When you understand that do you see the stupidity of envy? When God has a customized plan for you, you shouldn't say "I wish God had made me taller (or shorter, or darker, or lighter, or bigger, or smaller, or smarter, or dumber, in another country or whatever)." He has a customized plan for your life.
My suggestion is to focus on letting your life shine and forget trying to put everybody else's light out!
3. Rejoice in what I do have
Ecclesiastes 6:9 (GNB) "It's better to be satisfied with what you have than to always be wanting something else."
Philippians 4:11 "I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances."
God says, I want you to learn contentment. Don't try to be somebody you're not. Don't envy somebody. You're unique, you're different. Rejoice in what you do have and don't worry about what you don't.
Some single people wish they were married, some married people wish they were single. Paul says "I've learned to be content."
Contentment is understanding that God has provided all I need for me to be happy in my current situation, not tomorrow, not yesterday, but for today.
4. Respond to others in love
Why?
1 Corinthians 13:4 "Love does not envy."
Love is the opposite of envy. You can't love someone and envy them at the same time. How does that happen?
Matthew 22:9 "Love your neighbour as yourself."
Is that natural? No. Is that easy to do? No. Is that what the world teaches? No. Is that what the best selling books tell us to do? No. But it's the key to happiness. Love your neighbor as yourself. Learn to love other people. How do you do that?
Romans 12:15 "Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep."
Envy naturally does the exact opposite of this. Envy rejoices when they see somebody have a failure and weeps when somebody has a success. But love rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep.
When you are envious you miss out on so much happiness in life because envy keeps you from sharing in other people's happiness. When they have a baby, if you're envious of it, you can't share in their joy. When they get married, if you're envious of it, you can't share in their joy. When they get a promotion, if you're envious, you can't share in the joy. If the only time you have joy is when things happen to you, you're going to miss out on an awfully lot of joy in life. On the other hand, if you learn not to be envious, and you learn to enjoy other people's positive experiences, you'll be happy most of your life. Because good things are happening to other people all the time. And when you can share in their joy then you get to share it. You benefit even though it didn't happen to you.
5. Refocus on pleasing God
Colossians 3:2 "Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things."
Look at life from God's view point. Realize that material things are only temporary. Focus on what's going to last forever. Don't set your mind on things that are not going to last 10 years. Focus your life on things that will last for eternity. When you do that, competition becomes irrelevant. When you do that, climbing the ladder of success becomes irrelevant.
The antidote to envy is to be so caught up in fulfilling God's plan, God's purpose for your life, fulfilling your life mission, that every thing else is just unimportant in comparison.
Proverbs 33:17 (GNB) "Don't be envious of sinful people; let reverence for the Lord be the concern of your life. If it is, you have a bright future."
Prayer
Father, I don’t want to resent your blessing of other people, I want to acknowledge the unique way you have put me together…
I don’t want to be distracted from my life Mission, in conflict, and being led into sin; I know that envy like this makes me miserable.
Help me to resist comparing myself to others, to recognize my uniqueness, to rejoice in what I do have and to respond to others in love.
I just want to refocus on pleasing you Lord.
Lord, help me as I wait on you concerning my unique mission. Amen
