Envy

I see Envy this way...being sad when someone else has victory and being glad when someone else loses. Now, you can apply that definition to any area of life, but have you ever noticed how sneaky envy is? We usually don't tend to envy people that are outside of the arena of life we are in. For example, I don't envy LeBron James, Bill Gates, Rachael Ray or Tom Cruise. All of these people are highly successful in their fields, but I'm not in their fields. I play basketball for fun (and hope I don't pull anything), I cook without getting paid for it, I'm on the computer but haven't invented anything to improve the quality of it & I act goofy alot, but no one would be willing to buy a ticket to see me on the big screen. Now, think about those people and who do you think would be envious of their achievements?...other NBA players, rich successful businessmen, other cooking shows & other actors. We tend to envy the people that do what we do. I may envy other Pastors or other churches. You may envy someone in the same field as you, but more than likely you won't envy outside of your personal arena of life. Look in the church, we envy the other areas of ministry that have success, other community groups that seem to grow faster than ours, or other musicians that play better than us. James 3:16 says, "for where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." More than anything, God wants His church to be unified and orderly, and with Envy hanging around...that won't happen.