Latest / Prayer Before Work / S01E23 - ENVY "Wanting What Someone Else Has"
Transcript
- Sean Graver: Welcome to prayer before work. Now let's slow down before the day takes over and bring everything we're carrying to God, including the stuff we don't usually say out loud. So we're going to read ⁓ James 3.16, which says, where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. So James doesn't ease into this. Envy, he says, isn't just an uncomfortable feeling. It's a source, a root, if you will, and where envy lives, disorder follows. Now, if you've ever watched a team slowly fracture because someone couldn't celebrate another person's success, you know exactly what he means here. Envy is one of those things that almost nobody admits to, but almost everybody experiences, and especially at work. When someone gets the recognition you were hoping for, when a peer gets promoted and you didn't, or when someone younger is further ahead than you think they should be, I've watched peers who are otherwise great people to work with, and I saw them get disappointed, frustrated, and even mad over a coworker's promotion. And the sneaky thing about envy. is that it disguises itself. Sometimes it just shows up as criticism, finding reasons why they really didn't deserve it, or ⁓ as disengagement, like why bother if it's not going to be noticed anyway? Or as a comparison, like a constant measuring of where you are against where they are. Now, the antidote isn't pretending that you don't feel it, but it is being honest enough to acknowledge it to God and to yourself. And then choosing a different posture. Celebration instead of comparison. Gratitude for your own lane of success instead of resentment of theirs. Your story is not their story. And that's not like a consolation prize, it's actually the gift. So, let's pray. God, there have been times in my life where I have found it hard to celebrate the success of others. I know deep down that's envy and I'm calling out, I'm naming it now because I don't ever want it to take root. Help me to always be genuinely glad for the people around me who are winning. Help me to trust that your plan for me is not diminished by somebody else's success. that there's enough of your goodness to go around and Lord deliver me from the disorder that envy brings and replace it with the kind of contentment that lets me run my own race well without constantly looking at someone else's lane. So free me from comparison today Lord. I pray in Jesus name, amen. Go make today count.