Proverbs 14:30 Amplified Bible
30
A calm and peaceful and tranquil heart is life and health to the body,
But passion and envy are like rottenness to the bones.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord. — Proverbs 23:17
It’s tempting to admire rich and famous people who seem to have every pleasure in this world. They seem to have everything at their fingertips—money, fine food, adventurous travels, sleek cars and other toys, beautiful houses in beautiful places, power in business and politics. Don’t they have it all?
The Bible often cautions against having too much desire for the things other people have. That can lead to internal unrest that’s unhealthy for the soul.
Envy often involves not only a deep desire for something but also a demand that no one else should have it. And the sin of envy might tempt us to commit more sin in our obsession to get what we want—to lie, cheat, steal, or even kill for it.
However, says King Solomon, the writer of our passage today, it is far better to pursue doing things God’s way. When we truly live God’s way, our future will be secure, even if it doesn’t seem exciting or extravagant by the world’s standards.
In fact, when we are truly wise and in tune with God, enjoying the consolations He has freely provided us we will have just as much desire for God’s way as we might be tempted to have for the life of people who seem to have everything.
Envy: The Insidiously Camouflaged Anti-God Emotion
Psalm 119:33-40 Amplified Bible
He.
33
Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
And I will [steadfastly] observe it to the end.
34
Give me understanding [a teachable heart and the ability to learn], that I may keep Your law;
And observe it with all my heart.
35
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
36
Incline my heart to Your testimonies
And not to dishonest gain and envy.
37
Turn my eyes away from vanity [all those worldly, meaningless things that distract—let Your priorities be mine],
And restore me [with renewed energy] in Your ways.
38
Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant,
As that which produces [awe-inspired] reverence for You.
39
Turn away my reproach which I dread,
For Your ordinances are good.
40
I long for Your precepts;
Renew me through Your righteousness.
More and more I encounter an emotion in people that is quiet, hidden, nagging, and insidious. Most people seem surprised when it’s named (if it is so named because nobody dares, risk, want, to 0.01% offend anyone else’s sensibilities.)
And even the slightest of notions of inviting an open exploration of the real feelings in their relationships seems quite unthinkable.
To dare take ownership of the emotion feels shameful, and the detection of said emotion risks eliciting diverse measures and degrees of guilt in the perceiver.
It’s a primitive feeling we can easily recognize, yet conveniently, and physical and spiritual, self-preservation, tend not to take notice of. What is the feeling?
Envy. a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck (noun) and a desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to (someone else) – verb.
It’s at the heart of relationship problems, in families and between lovers. Its corrosive properties lurk at the heart of political divides and toxic discourse.
Individuals and groups grow further apart and disparities, divisiveness emerge, more seeds of quiet strife, irreconcilable discontent, fields of envy are planted.
What is the Experience of Envy?
Mark 7:14-23 Amplified Bible
The Heart of Man
14 After He called the people to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen [carefully] to Me, all of you, [hear] and understand [what I am saying]: 15 there is nothing outside a man [such as food] which by going into him can defile him [morally or spiritually]; but the things which come out of [the heart of] a man are what defile and dishonor him. 16 [a][If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”]
17 When Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the [b]house, His disciples asked Him about the parable. 18 And He said to them, “Are you, too, so foolish and lacking in understanding? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile and dishonor him, 19 since it does not enter his heart, but [only] his stomach, and [from there it] is eliminated?” (By this, He declared all foods [c]ceremonially clean.) 20 And He said, “Whatever comes from [the heart of] a man, that is what defiles and dishonors him. 21 For from within, [that is] out the heart of men, come base and malevolent thoughts and schemes, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 acts of greed and covetousness, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained conduct, envy and jealousy, slander and profanity, arrogance and self-righteousness and foolishness (poor judgment). 23 All these evil things [schemes and desires] come from within and defile and dishonor the man.”
One thing I find interesting about envy is that it is much easier to feel than it is to define. As stated above, it’s primitive and easy to access in our bodies. But what exactly is it?
Before defining it, I invite you to feel in your body.
Bring to mind someone, group of people who always seems to get what they want. Life seems to automatically open up a 10 mile wide path of blessings to them no matter what challenges others face. They have all the love and all of the money they need without seeming to suffer the hardships of pain or loss.
They are gorgeous and seem to find even more beautiful, doting, and passionate lovers. They have charisma, make others laugh with ease and always seem to be having an amazing joyous time, they’ll have boundless energy and confidence.
Feeling it yet?
Where?
I feel it deep in my soul, I feel my stomach twist and my molars being forced together (gnashing of my teeth). It’s painful, yet also perversely stimulating.
How the Sin of Envy Rots Us to the Bone
Proverbs 14:30 The Message
30 A sound mind makes for a robust body,
but runaway emotions corrode the bones.
A few weeks ago, I was in prayer and was having a difficult time letting some ideas, thoughts go regarding the direction of my post Open Heart Surgical life.
Can you relate?
Maybe not because you might have had open heart surgery, but another way.
Sometimes, the enemy seems to flood your life with distractions in order to cloud your mind, bring confusion, and cause you to question God. Eventually, if left unchecked, we can begin to grow alienated, bitter toward others (and God).
For me, because of the way I was raised and also the environment I spent a majority of my life in (bullied/nursing/psychiatry), I am used to looking at the minutest details of other people’s lives and too, measuring my life with theirs, whether to make myself feel better or give myself their goals to work toward.
Sadly, this is how most people make decisions in life.
They say, “Well, that’s how so-and-so did it so that seems like a logical plan.”
Or “So-and-so is just always so successful in life and seems to have everything they want. I will just change my goals, follow what they did so I can have that kind of happiness and have those nice clothes, car, job, house, spouse, etc.”
Ultimately, if you follow this way of living, do not achieve their success, you grow resentful toward others and envy starts to grow in your heart. Envy will then cause you to look for reasons why you deserve what someone else has.
Comparison, contrasting and envy give birth to ungratefulness and bitterness not just toward ourselves and other people, but most importantly, toward God.
The moment you take that step into comparing your life with someone else’s is the moment you will find yourself in a real deep, empty pit surrounded by pride, selfishness, bitterness, and envy.
The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom on how we are to live our life and avoid such pitfalls.
Let’s take a look at one of these pitfalls, envy:
“A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones” (Proverbs 14:30, KJV).
You can forget about living in peace or feeling complete or whole if you enter into the land of envy or covetousness.
Comparison that leads to envy has been a trap of the enemy since creation.
The motive behind Adam and Eve’s disobedience was comparison, which lead to covetousness, which lead to pride, which lead to selfishness, which lead to ungratefulness for what God had already provided (all rooted in fear).
Are you in fear? Then you are not in faith. Anything that is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:22-23).
22-23 Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you’re out of line. If the way you live isn’t consistent with what you believe, then it’s wrong.
When we compare ourselves with another, we are saying we would do a better job planning out the minutest detail of our lives than our Creator, the sovereign Most High, acting like Satan who fell and caused Adam and Eve to fall.
Whoa, that is a dangerous place to be!
We are all guilty of comparing our lives to someone else’s life at one point or another. The only way out is to repent, renew your mind with the Word of God.
The word “sound” in Hebrew is marpe, which means healing, remedy, calmness, wholesome, and yielding.
We can only have a sound mind when our eyes are on Jesus and we are habitually in His Word. Cling to Him, abide in Him, and you will remain full of His love, joy, and peace- the only things that will bring true fulfillment.
You won’t want anything else than what He has for you; His promises for you will be more than enough.
Proverbs 3:5-12 The Message
5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
a father’s delight is behind all this.
You will begin to trust God with all of your heart and lean on His understanding, not your own. When we do that, He will direct our paths and He will never lead us astray. Take some time and right down ten things you are thankful for.
Gratefulness instead will fill your heart with joy, leave no room for comparison.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 40 The Message
40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.
4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
compares to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
account for you.
6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
so I can listen.
7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming.
I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
became part of my very being.
9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
let the congregation know the whole story.
11-12 Now God, don’t hold out on me,
don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.
13-15 Soften up, God, and intervene;
hurry and get me some help,
So those who are trying to kidnap my soul
will be embarrassed and lose face,
So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable
will be heckled and disgraced,
So those who pray for my ruin
will be booed and jeered without mercy.
16-17 But all who are hunting for you—
oh, let them sing and be happy.
Let those who know what you’re all about
tell the world you’re great and not quitting.
And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing:
make something of me.
You can do it; you’ve got what it takes—
but God, don’t put it off.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 