Envy

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.” (Luke 11:34)

A person’s eye says much about them. We often look for the attractive blue eyes or the illusive green eyes, but I am not talking about color. I am talking about what those eyes take in. When our soul is not submitted to God it then desires to see and interact with sin. Like a volcano that eventually breaks forth, a person that continually takes in the world and does not limit or stop that intake will burst forth in sin.

Envy is a bit different from the other deadly sins in so much that it primarily operates internally. It’s an emotion we often don’t see. It operates like this: What we see we can’t have, what we can’t have becomes our focus, what becomes our focus can often become our god. What it looks at and takes in is what you become whether you intend it or not.

It should not surprise us that we can find the effects of envy everywhere. We can see the effects at work, home, and even church. There is no safe place to hide away from it. Envy is everywhere!
You say, “I don’t envy!” Really, let me test you a bit. Since this is Raven’s country and many people don’t like that town northwest of us called Pittsburgh; how do you feel that the Steelers have won the most Super Bowl’s in NFL history? What if I reminded you that they are the only team to also do this back to back, not once but twice! How are you feeling now? Are you mad or really just envious that your team has not done this? I am going to bet your feeling towards this team is really envy. Even more can you learn from one of the Steelers players on this subject, let’s see…
Professional football player Troy Polamalu, a three-time Pro Bowl strong safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has worked hard to maintain his Christian character since joining the NFL in 2003. Before winning his second Super Bowl championship with the Steelers in 2009, Polamalu agreed to an interview for the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). "Pride is tough," Polamalu said to the interviewer. "You go to high school, and it's pride, courage. It's all these types of words that we use to motivate us. I don't think there's anywhere in the Scriptures … where pride was ever a positive characteristic of anybody. That kind of egotism is a really tough struggle—especially in this business. … It's a big struggle of mine."
Polamalu went on to say that it's not the obvious things that are the hardest to deal with in his life. "It's … the big things that are the easiest to turn away from. It's … the accumulation of small things [that are hard]. … People know adultery's bad and murder's bad. I'm not going to go out and sleep with the first girl I see. But when your eyes start wandering, [and you become] a little more jealous and envious, and these passions start rising up inside of you—that's when it really becomes dangerous. Because the Devil doesn't work that way. His strategy is always to be very subtle and continue to build on top of that evil seed that he planted."
Polamalu said prayer keeps him rooted. "As your prayer life becomes more and more fine tuned, and your conscience becomes more and more fine tuned, you're able to start plucking away at these things. [You're] like, 'Wow…this is not good.'"
Being on the lookout for envy and potential pitfalls is certainly a wise approach to life. However, we must also recognize that our enemy is deceptive and his goal is to entangle us in whatever sin he can where our guard is down.

Heavenly Father, help me recognize and confess when envy enters my life. May I never be conceited enough to think that I am beyond sin. May envy be far from me. I pray You continually steer my heart back to yours so that I may be ultimately found humbly helping others. May I be content with my life and thankful, in Jesus Name—Amen!

BTW: I am not a Steelers fan, I love the Broncos. I just can respect a team like the Steelers.