“Envy preaches a false gospel of favoritism and injustice, and because it does, it never comforts your heart. People who’ve been captured by envy seldom have peace, seldom have hope, and seldom find rest in God’s care.”- Paul David Tripp
“I loathe my very life; therefore, I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.”- Job 10:1 (NLT)
As Paul David Tripp moves on in Chapter 5 of Suffering, he presents the fifth and sixth things Psalm 73 teaches about envy.
5. Envy embitters your heart. When bitterness spiritually weakens the heart, it’s significantly more difficult to carry the real burdens of suffering. Thus, Pastor Tripp defines bitterness as “The long-term resentment that captures your heart when you think you’ve been treated unkindly or unfairly.”
As a result, bitterness:
- turns suffering into a personal worldview. It now colors the way you look at everything. Furthermore, you can’t see God’s blessings because bitterness so obstructs your view.
- soon becomes an attitude of your heart. Thus, you no longer carry an attitude of hope, joy, or expectancy. Rather, you carry an attitude of complaint. And, it erodes your motivation to do the good and positive things necessary to find your way through your difficulty.
6. Envy underestimates the goodness of God. When you tell your story, do others find God in the telling? Or do years of envy blind you to the presence and goodness of God? Yet, Pastor Tripp stresses, it’s important at such times to remember the beautiful reality of God’s constant presence and overflowing goodness.
Pastor Tripp concludes:
“When you hope in yourself, others, and circumstances has failed you, you need a rock on which to stand and a hand of help for which to reach. There is no rock so firm as the rock of Christ Jesus, and there is no hand so strong and caring as the hand of the Father.”
Today’s question: What Scriptures negate the false gospel envy preaches? Please share.
Coming Monday: the Christmas Short Meditation, “Christians be joyful – hope for the hole-idays”
Tomorrow’s blog: “Envy distorts your view of life”
