Daily Devo: July 4 Envy, Resentment, Pride
 |
| Daily Devo to begin our day the right way! |
I hope yesterday was fruitful through the Spirit’s guidance of letting unforgiveness and bitterness go from your heart. If you’re still struggling to clean it out, don’t stop! Pray without ceasing because the battle is in full swing!
Let’s look at a few more things today that keep our heart in No Man’s Land. Let’s just jump right in with envy and resentment.
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 1 Corinthians 3:3
Leave it to Paul to tell it like it is; you cannot behave this way and expect to be labeled as Kingdom ambassadors. Did Christ die for nothing? Was God’s ultimate sacrifice all in vain so that we could sit around and squabble like school children over a toy? When we become envious over the fact that someone has been blessed more than us, it is like the Israelites in the wilderness all over again. Essentially, we are saying “God you may have provided what I needed, but you obviously love them more than me because you gave them more (or better or less trouble or whatever whatever)”. That’s when we begin to resent not only other people and their perceived life of “better”, but we also begin to resent God. It’s not something anyone wants to admit, but we’re all coming clean here. Those who envy others for whatever reason begin to resent God. We feel we DESERVE what others have. We feel we have lived a good life which has EARNED us what others have, therefore, God OWES us, right? Before you shake your head and say “Never!”, stop right here and check your heart. We are OWED NOTHING. We do not do what we do to put God or others in our debt. If we do good it's because God is good and He works through us for His glory. Period. When we are not content with ALL that God has provided, when we stop believing that God provides exactly what we need because He knows exactly what we need, we stray onto the path of envy and resentment. It’s a dark and destructive path. The critical spirit begins to branch out and suddenly no one is safe from the wrath of unmet life expectations. Know anyone like that? Sound like someone you want to spend time with?
What about pride? Pride is all about standing on the shoulders of someone else and calling yourself tall. It’s self-esteem issues cloaked in boastfulness and criticism. We take all the self-conscious feelings inside of us and transfer them onto someone else so that we can criticize them and not ourselves. That is the destructive nature of pride. When we looked at God’s words of “do nothing out of selfish ambition”, “love others like your brother”, “the first will be last”, none of those allow pride a seat at the table. None. Pride is a taskmaster always demanding that you prove yourself to someone for some reason. “Enough” is a goal that cannot be reached as long as others are succeeding too. That is not a Biblical concept. Scripture even tells us to treat our enemy with kindness and grace. How much pride can you have when love must always be the top priority?
Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them. Proverbs 24:17-18
I heard some time ago that one way to always check your heart is to read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and substitute your name in for the word “love”. (Kujo is patient; Kujo is kind…) If reading through these verses in this way describes you then congratulations! However, if you feel the Spirit convict you, that’s where you need to tend your garden. Spend today working through these scriptures in prayer. Find your weak spots in the wall and have God repair them. Dig up the root of these issues in your life so that they can no longer wreak havoc in your garden. It’s 4th of July, celebrate true freedom by celebrating freedom from sin.
Memory THIS week: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; Isaiah 61:1
Comments