by Bud Lambert
Love does not envy ( 1 Corinthians 13:4). Based on this truth, if we as Christians truly allow God's love to rule supreme in our hearts, we can have a healthy self-esteem.
Envy destroys self-esteem. Understood as the insatiable desire for the wordly possessions of others, envy, in a vicious cycle, takes away our freedom to be content with our physical circumstances. Under envy's influence, we constantly desire to be like others and to have all the things they have. But because that's impossible, we almost never really feel good about ourself or our circumstance in life. We're never satisfied. There's always something someone has that we don't; there's always something wrong with us that we need to change; and there's always something more we need to achieve. The result of envy is low self-esteem.
Envy is a product of a heart/mind that is being controlled by the world: "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" ( 1 Corinthians 3:3) As the prince of this world ( John 12:31), Satan is using the things of this world - especially through advertising and relationships - to brain-wash us. We are constantly being told by the world that we need to look a certain way, dress a certain way, talk a certain way, buy certain things, receive certain honors, and so on, or we're not acceptable. We get all this garbage in our head, and sure enough, we start envying. We want to look like others, dress like others, smell like others, talk like others, and so on.
Because we behave according to what has control of our heart/mind ( Luke 6:45; Proverbs 23:7), the only way we can truly be free from the shackles of envy and the miserable life it brings is to allow the love of God to title our hearts. Love does not envy. When we replace the hedonistic ideas
of the world with the love of God, then and only then will we be satisfied
with what we have; then and only then will we be content with who and what we are, just like we are - how we look, what we know, where we live, how we are, and everything else about our physical existence.
EXERCISE:
1. Each morning this week choose and write down 10 things about yourself
or your life for which you have to be thankful.
2. Then throughout each day, at three specific times, thank God for those
things.