learn to enjoy it rather than resent it…

do you want to get envy out of your life? if you want to be a genuinely loving person, you’ve got to stop comparing yourself to other people and you have to start enjoying GOD’s grace to other people.

when you see GOD being kind, good, gracious to others, learn to enjoy it rather than resent it. you need to be happy when GOD is blessing somebody else. now this does not come naturally. you have to learn it. when GOD has been good to others, you need to learn to enjoy watching GOD do that to them.

this is the exact opposite of what these workers did. they went out and the guys who worked all day, they were paid exactly what they contracted for. they weren’t cheated. they just resented other people being given just as much. and instead of enjoying it, the workers resented it.

matthew 20.10-11,15b (cev/niv) says, the workers who had been hired first thought that they would be given more than the others, but when they were given the same, they began complaining to the owner of the vineyard. and he said, “are you envious because i am generous to them?” they resented it.

romans 12.15 (niv) says, rejoice with those who rejoice. earlier we looked at the second half of that verse, which says, and weep with those who weep. the second half of the verse is much easier to do than the first half. it’s easy when someone is down, they’re hard up on their luck, they’ve had a tough time, it’s easy to be sympathetic. that is an element of kindness. that you share the hurts and the pains and the sorrows of other people. that’s the easy part.

but it’s much more difficult to rejoice when they have a success. we don’t handle the success of other people very well. in fact, we’re threatened by it. we resent it. because somehow in our minds we think the world is some big giant apple pie and it’s all divided up into slices. and if somebody’s slice gets a little bit bigger, then that must mean my slice is going to get smaller.

but you’re wrong. because GOD’s got all the pie filling in the world. HE doesn’t run out of blessings. HE doesn’t run out of grace. there’s more than enough to go around for everybody, and because GOD blesses somebody else does not mean there is not enough blessings for you. HE just wants to do it in different ways.

HE does not bless us all the same. some have good health, others don’t have good health. some have good achievements, others don’t have good achievements. some have real good family relationships, others have difficult family relationships. we’re blessed in different ways. and we need to learn to rejoice in the joy of other people.

just a thought from the front porch…