Discontentment and Envy

"A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”

Proverbs 14:30

This is true of you as an individual, but also of human society in general. Envy tears apart marriages, it tears apart friendships, and it tears apart churches. God tells you to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, but envy weeps when others rejoice. Envy looks at the blessings others have and feels resentment. Why is he or she getting married, and I’m not? Why is she able to have a child, and I’m not? I work as hard as him, why does he have a nicer house, a larger income? Why does God bless that family, but not ours? This is a sin that rots the bones. It makes you despise your brother or sister in Christ. It makes you resent God’s goodness to others. It give you hard thoughts about your loving heavenly Father.

Envy begins with discontentment. You have the gifts, the abilities, and the life circumstances that God has given you and not the ones he has given to other people. Your job is to be grateful to Him. Do your best with what God has given you, and rejoice when one of your brothers or sisters is blessed in a way that you are not. You have what God wants you to have, and that is enough. And if you can have that sort of contentment in God, if you can have a heart at peace, it will give life to your body, and to your church body as well.