Sunday on Monday: The Evil of Envy

'Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,  but who can stand against jealousy?'
---Proverbs 27:4

THE EVIL OF ENVY.  This says jealousy can be more harmful than anger.  Why?  Envy is wanting someone else's life.  But it is not just that.  In envy we don't just want other people's lives,  we resent and begeudge them their lives.  In praise you recognize other people who are better off than you and you rejoice in it. But in envy you recognize people who are better off and you burn with bitterness.  John Gielgud, the great British actor,  in his autobiography said,  'When Sir Laurence Olivier played Hamlet in 1948 and the critics raved,  I wept.'

Envy is being unhappy at other people's happiness.  Envy weeps because of those who are rejoicing and rejoices if they are weeping. It is exactly the opposite of the godly state of mind. (Romans 12:5)  And the best way to stop it is to look at Jesus, about whom it could truly be said,  'In all their distress he too was distressed.'  (Isaiah 63:9).

Is there someone you feel has the life you deserve?  Is that belief and feeling diminishing your happiness to any degree?  What can you do about it?

PRAYER:  Father,  I need the ability to be happy for people who have what I badly want.  That is a love of which I am not capable but one that I really can't live without.  I do not want to live in resentment.  Help me, Lord!  Amen

Timothy Keller,  Proverbs,  God's Wisdom for Navigating Life,  May 7,  page 127