Envy is not just a harmless human emotion. The result of envy in our lives is a big deal. It is a poison that slowly kills us while the devil takes a bow when it has finally stole, killed and destroyed us, one by one by one.
It doesn't really matter where you are in life, envy does sneak up on us more often than we think. When I watch Oprah give away those cars on her show, I often wonder why I couldn't be one of those people? Or if someone wins the lottery and purchased it from a store that I often shopped at, I think why him or her, why not me?
If you think that you are not envious about someone, then you need to search your soul and you may be surprised at what you find. It is not something we are conscious about because it happens often. We feel it creep up on us but we dismiss it because we feel that it is human nature. Envy doesn’t announce itself and therefore comes unnoticed.
The most dangerous part of being envious, no matter how much you think it to be minuscule and irrelevant, it does something to your psyche. As soon as you feel envious, you later become a little irritated or even depressed. You may even put an undue burden of stress on yourself because the only cure for it is to be in the same position as the person your envy is directed to. You could be having a good day earlier but now you find you have come undone. What do you think happened? Envy crept up on you and poisoned you with a feeling of ill will and discontent because of someone else’s success or favor. Envy set in.
The devil tries to pressure you into receiving it as part of your spiritual or even human nature. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can divert your thinking, your perception and quickly line it up with what God says you are. You are favored, you are loved, you are special to Him. You have to consciously rid of yourself of envy in order for the grace and blessings of God to manifest through you. Envy chokes the life that God has purposely paved for you to walk through. Never allow this devil devised scheme to enter your life. Say it with your words and cast him out of your path, your life, and your future.
Instead of putting yourself down because you feel you don’t have what the other person does, ask God to bless that person and be happy for them. Only then will God be honored, and we all know that when you honor God, He honors you. God may give you more than what your cup can handle and then you will realize that being envious with that person was such a silly thing after all.
Until my next rant… LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
As a young child we are mostly taught obedience by our parents. It’s kind of a funny double-edged sword because what we are being taught to obey may not be the best thing for us because the rules are coming from imperfect people like ourselves. For the most part, parents teach us to obey what they teach to be the right thing to do in different circumstances. When we become adults however, we sometimes question those rules and determine in our maturity whether to relinquish some of those rules to fit our own agendas.
There is however, one person we absolutely need to obey no matter what, and that is God. Obedience to someone who is perfect in every way shape and form and always has been a rule maker who will never lead us astray.
God’s guidance requiring our obedience is not a straight line. When he requires us to obey His direction for us, we learn a good lesson from it which in turn becomes our testimony that others may become inspired to do the same. Let me give you an example.
I lived in Antioch, CA since 2008 during the housing market crash. I was able to purchase a 600K house for under 300K. When I moved into that house, it impressed me as the neighborhood was nice, manicured, clean and pretty. You would never peg it to be a bad neighborhood. Six years later, crime rose to a fever pitch wherein random gun violence became a regular occurrence around our neighborhood.
My husband was originally from Napa. This area is upscale although there are parts that are medium to low income but never as bad as what can be found in Antioch.
We decided to start looking for another house, perhaps two towns over from Antioch since Scott’s job was local. We then found a house in Oakley we both liked. We started working on the purchase in February. Three times there was something that deterred the purchase from going through. Every single time I knew it was God’s intervention that for some reason we could not get this house to close.
God impressed it in my heard (I call it speaking to me) that we had to move into Scott’s house in Napa and forget about the house in Oakley. It didn’t really make sense to me because my flesh-mind told me that it only makes sense to stay local for Scott’s job and I got a job in Walnut Creek as well. My commute would have been a half an hour. From Napa, it will be an hour each way. I fought it out with God but eventually He won, He always does. I figured I should be obedient.
Our plan went like this. One, give Scott’s tenants notice to vacate the property within 60 days, roughly by June 12th, then prepare the house to sell. Two, we move into the Oakley house at projected closing date of May 30th. Third, sell the Napa house and the Antioch house and the proceed goes into the Oakley house. Well, we can plan all we want but ultimately, God’s plan prevails.
So this is how it actually went. The Antioch house sold first. Then the renters moved out and we tried to get the house prepared to sell. BIG HUGE ROADBLOCK. But at the time we were fixing the house, God told me we need to move into it. WHAT???? Oh Boy! I dismissed it in my mind, maybe it was satan telling me this, lol! Then the problems arose from the Oakley house. We couldn’t close because the original owner made a handshake deal with someone else and died before the title could clear that the other guy was paid in full for something that occurred in the 70s.
This was the final nail on the coffin. I could not possibly delve into something that could potentially cause us a big headache later on when we decide to sell the house. It took a lot of convincing for Scott to agree to let the Oakley house go and move into the Napa house. It was the best decision yet. Why?
First, what was owed on the house ate up the equity for what it was worth in the area meaning we would not get as much as we think we would had we sold it because the value around the area is still catching up to the rise in housing. Remember, houses in Napa are much higher in value than anywhere else which means it would be a much higher investment for a buyer. Second, the house is an older house and needed major work and major upgrade. It did not have air conditioning and the furnace is 40 years old. We didn’t know this until we moved in. Our electrical utilities alone would have been $400/month because the furnace is not energy efficient. That was a major expense. The pool needs major work because of the age, there are pipes under the concrete that needed to be replaced from a leak. I could go on and on but there are things we haven’t even discovered yet.
This is what obedience is. God deterred us from moving into Oakley because it will only take a matter of time before the high crime will slowly creep into that area. Even though our house in Napa is currently a money pit, the area is safe and we now plan to stay here until God takes us home.
My bones are super tired from fixing up the house. Our savings is slowly being depleted. It is a weekend project for us every weekend since we moved in but eventually the price of obedience will pay off for us. I thank God everyday for His motivation and guidance.
How have things turned out for you when you resist God in the past? Have you seen your circumstances change for the better and find yourself saying “that was a blessing in disguise?” If the answer is YES then you have been obedient to God and He will always save us from ourselves.
I use every circumstance to share with all of you so stay tuned to see the progress of the house upgrades with the new/old house. I am blogging about it. Be patient as I sometimes am too tired to do updates.
Until my next rant.... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!
