Psalm 73 : Overcoming EnvySample

Delighting in God: The Antidote to Envy

As mentioned in yesterday's devotional, we should be more concerned with accumulating treasure in heaven than here on earth. However, this doesn't mean that our treasure is limited only to heaven, nor that we must settle for less during our earthly life. What truly enabled the psalmist to be content was when he was able to say in v25, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you." and again in v28 he declares, "But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." True contentment comes only when we truly believe that having God with us is enough for all our needs. Envy and discontent can take root in our lives only when we believe that God is not sufficient, that something other than God is necessary for our happiness.

Sometimes we're not conscious of the fact that we don't value God enough. For instance, if you hear of someone who led a wild life and then made a deathbed commitment to God, how do you feel? Do you envy them, thinking that they got into heaven despite enjoying every kind of pleasure all their life? Or do you feel sorry for them that they didn't know God until it was almost too late? If our first reaction is envy, then we're probably undervaluing God. We're thinking that a worldly, indulgent life is more desirable than a life lived by God's values in God's kingdom.

Can we genuinely echo the psalmist, "There is nothing on earth that I desire besides you?" Proverbs 16:8 reminds us, "Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice." Do we truly believe that it's better to be righteous and have less than to be extremely wealthy without God? Jesus compared the kingdom of God to priceless treasure, so valuable that a person would be willing to give up all that they had to belong to the kingdom (Matthew 13:44-46). Do we value being in the kingdom that much? Or do we place a higher value on an abundance of possessions?

Do you believe that a relationship with God is worth more than material wealth?