Envy is the number-one thief of our happiness. It is a heart disease that always steals our joy. When we envy toward someone’s life, we are complaining Father’s unique plans for us and we are trapped in a selfish and destructive mind that would have no end. We would never be truly happy as long as we always compare our lives to others.

Envy may come from:

1. Bitterness (a wounded heart, especially related to pains in the past)
There are good pains as well as bad pains in everyone’s life. Bitterness comes from the bad pains (unresolved pains), not only when we could not forgive others for what they had done wrong to us, but also when we could not forgive and forget our own mistakes. That’s why we would never be able to feel others’ happiness. When others are celebrating their success, we could not rejoice with them, instead we would start to feel lonely and think about our failures: “Why not me? Was it because of my mistakes? Can I blame someone who should have been responsible for my situation?”

2. Dissatisfaction (a greedy heart, especially related to selfish ambitions and the hunger for power and people’s approval)
Sometimes we are passionate to achieve success just to prove our superiority to others. It is not a sincere desire to succeed, actually. When we could not achieve what we want, we got angry and dissappointed. We think that we deserved all, we should be the first champion or… the king of all. If someone accomplished better, we might try to find his faults, so that we could still be the number one. What a wicked heart.

3. Insecurity (a doubtful heart, especially related to worry or fear about unpleasant things that would happen to us)
Here is a love story between two lovers: One day a man, sees his spouse doing something good to everyone, thinks: “Why is she kind to everyone? Why does not she only treat me as the special one? Why does not she admire me as the only one?” This is really a selfish thinking from the man who is, from the deepest of his heart, actually doubtful (or distrustful) about her love. He does not really believe that the woman has loved and accepted him unconditionally. He worries if someday the woman would betray his love. Seems stupid? But it really happens.

In fact, Father has prepared great and wonderful plans for each one of us. He is just and merciful. He perfecty loves and cares for us. All that we accomplished in life is completely done by His grace, not by our own strength or ability. We had better to put our expectation in and rely on Him alone.

He has promised to give us:
1. Perfect healing, as He alone can restore every wounded hearts and renew even the darkest life.
2. Real joy, as He alone can satisfy our souls and meet our deepest hunger for eternal love.
3. Blessed assurance, as He alone can provide a peaceful mind and set us free from fears about the future. 

For the bitterness, He gave us a perfect healing.
For the dissatisfaction, He gave us a real joy.
For the insecurity, He gave us a blessed assurance.

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice (James 3:16)