Definition

ENVY – a dissatisfaction with what God has given to you; a hatred of the “hand you’ve been dealt.”

Note: Envy and Pride (the next sin) are very closely related. There is a great deal of overlap in the next two weeks’ meditations.

Read Ecclesiastes 9:1-6

The book of Ecclesiastes is a difficult Scripture to read. It is the reflection of a man who tried every possible thing to find satisfaction in life and ultimately concludes it is all ‘vanity and striving with the wind.’ This particular passage shows how entangled love, hate, envy and pride are in most people’s lives. We can’t even tell where our actions come from.

Envy drives us to pretend – sometimes to get close to the one we envy, sometimes to destroy them. It is a confusing state of mind and extremely difficult to identify.

Jesus, I acknowledge that envy is in my life, but I confess that I cannot easily identify it or its results. As I journey here, please give me discernment to identify it in my thinking and weed it out.