The Sunday News
Itai Chapunza
A LOT of people are consumed by envy and jealousy over things and other people. When envy consumes you, you can be sure of this, if you do not address it in time, it will destroy everything that you have worked for. Literally everything you have for so many years worked hard to get and accumulate can be lost because of envy. It’s even worse when you envy things of people that are evil. This can cost you your salvation.
Proverbs 24 verse 1
Don’t envy bad people, don’t even want to be around them. All they think about is causing disturbance, all they think about is making trouble. It takes wisdom to build a house and understanding to set it on a firm ground.
The Bible says of envy that it should not be part of you. The Lord specifically says don’t envy bad people. No matter how they may appear, they only want to cause destruction and harm. Bad people are selfish, as long as their agenda is achieved, they don’t care what happens to anyone else. All they want is to achieve what they desire. The whole house can starve for an entire month, as long as he gets to drink beer. The entire company can go without salaries because the money was stolen. It means nothing to them, selfish desires. So we should not envy such people because what you look to with deep desire you will most likely turn out to be. If you envy the bad, you will soon become a bad person yourself. This happens without you noticing. So if you envy bad people, you will soon become like them. Envy can actually cost you your salvation.
Envy causes you not to see the blessings God has placed around you. When envy consumes you, it does not matter how much the Lord has blessed you, as long as it is not exactly like that of the person you envy, it will never be good enough. I know people who are blessed with good families, wealth and good jobs, but start to overlook all that because it is not like of the person they envy. It’s really sad to watch accomplished people spend all their energy on envying someone that instead should envy them. It almost seems like a mental problem.
When you allow envy, you don’t wish that person anything good. This is not good for a Christian, you must wish everyone the best. When you understand that the success of people around you does not mean you are a failure, then it becomes very easy to wish others good. We can all be successful, so there is no need to envy someone else. But if you allow yourself to believe that success is you having what your neighbour has, then it will be hard to wish them well because you want what they have.
Envy takes away your joy. Joy and happiness are not the same. Joy is internal and it’s not based on things around you. You can be facing hardships, but still be full of joy. Joy is not determined by what you are currently going through. Joy is a gift from God. It is constant. That is why the joy of the Lord is our strength. The joy of the Lord is a gift from him that gives us strength. Happiness on the other hand is determined by current affairs in your life. You can be happy in the morning and sad in the evening of the very same day. On a day you are happy and that person appears you suddenly become in a foul mood. This is the power of envy over you if you let it. In the long run, envy can even take your joy. The envy for that particular person can take away your joy. You can become very bitter because of that person, you can focus on hating that person to a point of not being able to exist independently without tracking their movement and find out what they are doing so that you may imitate them. Envy will make you focus more on the other person and forget what the Lord has created you for. You suddenly forget that you have so much to achieve for God and transfer all you are meant to affect the world for Christ into hating this particular person. Envy is self inflicted sorrow, the word of God says that the blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow. So you are truly blessed but because you allow envy, you allow sorrow in your life.
Envy can cause you to destroy all you have because you think it’s worth nothing as long as the person you envy is around. Look around your life. What has God blessed you with? No matter how big or small. Life, friends, family, your spouse, kids, siblings all these are a blessing from God that money cannot buy. Even the blessings money can buy are given to us by God, but when you allow envy to consume you, all these disappear in your mind and you only see bad things around you. You begin to think, this wife or husband cannot do this and that like the other person’s wife or husband. Your mind forgets that there are a million things your spouse can do better than the person you envy. Suddenly you forget that the Lord said I will make you a great nation, and bless you. You forget the Lord said he will make you a blessing and you will lend to many but borrow from none. Have an amazing week, and teach yourself to work hard towards what God has called you for. Envy will not help you in any way.
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