The 3rd of 7... part 3...

This will close out our thoughts on envy, and I believe that I have been led to the perfect verse for it.  You see, envy is so infectious, but it seems to overtake the individual from the inside out.  The problem, though, is that before it comes to the outside, it destroys the inside.

"A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot."

Proverbs 14:30, ESV

Peace is what we should be seeking, and envy does not allow for that.  Envy and jealousy gobble up all the peace they can, just as the leviathan does anything it wishes in the sea.  I mentioned before that I had the demonic names associated with each of these sins, and "leviathan" is the one for envy.  That mystical beast was known to devour and consume anything that crossed it, and it was going to be the most vicious, the most feared... nothing else mattered.  It became so bad that anything else in the  sea stirred enough jealousy to require destruction of the foreign object.

There is no peace in any story of the leviathan.  Tranquility does not exist there.  And if that is how your heart reacts to things in life and in the world, then there is no peace within you.  Imagine how awful that would feel (or recognize how awful it DOES feel) to only be concerned with consumption of everything around you, so that nothing could be better/faster/smarter/stronger/prettier/handsomer/etc.  Where would your life go?  Where is it going now?  Even if you only have a small amount of leviathan in you (and we all do, friend), you are in some ways competing in this ridiculous race.

And why does it seem that the harder you push, the harder it gets?  Why s the finish line never getting closer?  Well that's simple: your bones are rotting away.  You heart isn't giving life, it's barely clinging to it.  You aren't living in this manner... you're struggling to survive.  Without peace, there can be no life of significance, and that is what Jesus wants us to have!

Stop today, and realize that envy should no longer hold sway over you.  Sure, there are people who are blessed in different ways than you are, and some of them seem to be blessed in greater ways than you are.  However, if you take their blessings AND their trials, looking at the entire picture, you might not want their circumstances so badly.  In fact, you might just be able to take an honest look at all the blessings you've received, and recognize that you are as highly favored as the Word says you are. 

On a side note, there is a young man who recently won the lottery, and stated that he would give away the vast majority, if not all of it, to charity (working from memory here, and I don't know the entire story).  My wife looked right at me and stated that the reason we will probably never win an amount that large is because we wouldn't snap to a charitable response.  She's right, 100%.  But we're working on that, and shifting our focus.  We're thinking about the responses we should have, regardless of the scenario, and we're thinking about the old question, "What Would Jesus Do?" 

I'll tell you one thing... He wouldn't be envious.

God bless you all!!!