"Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another..."
(Galatians 5:26)
 
Have you ever opened your closet bulging with clothes and thought, “I have nothing to wear...”

Have you ever looked into your refrigerator brimming with food and said, “There's nothing to eat...”

As sinners, we have this amazing propensity to stand in the middle of lavish blessing and feel as if we are poor and needy.

How does this happen? In a word: envy. But it starts with forgetfulness.

Envy forgets blessing, and in forgetting blessing assumes poverty, and in assuming poverty gives way to hunger, and this feeling of hunger tempts us to look to and long for what simply will not satisfy.

Have you recently experienced pangs of envy when you:

• See someone drive past in a luxury car
• Walk by the window of an upscale restaurant
• Hear about your neighbor’s vacation plans
• Interact with someone else’s spouse
• See someone else’s physique at the gym
• Scroll through your Instagram feed right before bed

It’s safe to say: if you’re a sinner, envy lurks around the corner all the time.
Wow ... You’re probably thinking, “Thanks for that encouraging devotional today, Paul!” Well, let me try to encourage you as we struggle with the reality that is envy.

There is only one way to put it: Remember what you have.

I would encourage you to sit down and literally count your blessings. Inventory everything you have; you’ll be surprised how quickly that list begins to take up multiple pages.

Think about all the people who care about you and serve you in some way. Analyze all the ways in which God’s common grace makes your life comfortable, enjoyable, and healthy.

If you look at life with a humble and thankful heart, you’ll very quickly remember that you are one who has been unfairly showered with blessing.

The most undeserved blessing, of course, is our salvation because of the sacrifice of Christ. Our Savior had it all, but was willing to forsake it all for you and me.

He walked away from glories our minds are too small to conceive so that the battle for our hearts could be won, both now and forever. We know that there will be a day when envy is no more, and we will live forever in the presence of his love, fully and completely satisfied.

Until that day, envy will be a struggle. But it’s a struggle that we don’t have to face alone. The sacrifice of Christ provides us with right here, right now grace: rescuing, restoring, empowering, forgiving, and transforming grace.

I love seeing that grace at work in Asaph’s heart as Psalm 73 progresses. He begins with, “For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (v. 3). But by the end, grace has rescued and transformed him, resulting in contentment: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.” (v. 25)

When you are satisfied with the Giver, because you have found in him the life you were designed for, you are freed from the ravenous quest for satisfaction that is the discouraging existence of so many people.

Our envious hearts will rest only when they have found satisfaction in him.

(Devotional from Paul Tripp Ministries)
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:

Exodus 20:17
Job 5:2
Psalm 37:1-3
Psalm 73:3,25
Proverbs 14:30
Mark 7: 21-22
Galatians 5:19-21
James 3:14-16
1 Peter 2:1-2



Questions to reflect on:

1. When is the last time you experienced a pang of envy? What were you “feeling hungry” for at the time?
2. What were you forgetting in the moment that allowed you to experience envy? What should you have remembered in that moment to help combat envy?
3. Sit down today or this week and literally count your blessings. Take your time and allow forgotten blessings to populate your list. What are some of those blessings that you forgot?
4. What are some small, practical steps that you can take to transition your heart from “For I was envious” to “There is nothing on earth that I desire besides you”?

"In Christ Jesus you [Gentiles] who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ..."
(Ephesians 2:13)
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As we take this day in the U.S to celebrate Martin Luther King and his life, I can’t help but think about how hard he worked and how firm he stood to make a difference for the movement of racial reconciliation and justice. However, we know we have miles and miles to go. For us who are the church, it is the Word of God that we have to show us why we must NOT be on the side of hate and injustice. What Christ has done on the cross has made all the difference. How much do we believe it and live it when it comes to racial reconciliation? I want you to take the time to read this power article (this week’s devotional) below from John Piper about what the Word of God shows us when it comes to this:
 
I didn’t always love Paul for his work of ethnic reconciliation. There are years in my past for which I am ashamed — years of racism when I was so in the thrall of my Southern culture of the 1950s and 1960s that I could not see what was staring up at me from the pages of Paul’s letters. I don’t say it that way to lessen my own guilt, as though I could somehow blame my blindness on culture. I was a more-than-willing accomplice in the racial ugliness of those days. I’ve told the whole story in Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian.

But there came a time when the scales began to fall away. (I say began so as not to imply the total absence of blinders still.) Of course, it was the work of no mere man. “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind” (John 9:32). No. This was a gracious, sovereign work of Jesus by his Spirit. But, as always, he used a human agent. He used human words. In fact, he used the apostle Paul.
 
Paul could help me because he had at one time been as prejudiced against Gentiles as I was against African Americans. Paul called himself “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5). He considered his ethnic and religious pedigree, with the zeal of a persecutor and the blamelessness of a Pharisee (Philippians 3:6), to be almost without peer in his generation (Galatians 1:14). He would have said with his fellow Jewish apostle Peter, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation” (Acts 10:28).
 
But then something happened. It was both devastating and liberating. It devastated every ground of boasting that Paul had. And it liberated him for the experience of a new humanity that was not defined by race or ethnicity or cultural custom. He tallied up all the pride and gain he had achieved through ethnic and religious distinctives and called it excrement in comparison to Christ.
 
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as excrement, in order that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:7–8, my translation)
 
By God’s illuminating grace, Paul penetrated to the ethnic achievements of the cross of Christ. Here’s what happened when Christ died:
 
In Christ Jesus you [Gentiles] who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one [Jew and Gentile] and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. . . . For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:13–16, 18)
 
“By the blood of Christ . . . in his flesh . . . through the cross. . . . He made us both one . . . breaking down the hostility . . . creating one new man . . . reconciling us both to God . . . with access together in one Spirit to the Father.” These are revolutionary words. In that day or in any day. In Rwanda, or Cambodia, or Iran, or India, or in South Carolina.

And they are not first and foremost political words, or social-justice words, or civil-rights words, but gospel words. They are blood-bought, Christ-exalting, heaven-opening words. They are the triumphant fruit of the death of the Son of God. To love the old rugged cross is to love the fruit of the cross. Christ died to create “one new man.” Christ died to remove the “wall of hostility.” Christ died to “[be] our peace.” Christ died so that there would not be multiple segregated accesses to the Father, but that “we would both [name your ethnic rivalry] have access in one Spirit to the Father.”
 
And all of this is “in Christ” — in Christ you have been brought near. This is not first a mandate for secular culture. This is first a mandate for Christians — those who are in Christ — a mandate for how we relate to each other. In the church, this is the way it should be. Christian exiles and sojourners are not responsible for making unbelievers act like believers. But oh, how responsible we are to love what Christ died to achieve, and to act like it!

Here “in Christ,” here in the church, Paul says in Colossians 3:11, “There is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Because Christ is worth all, and is in all, racial and ethnic differences should no longer create hostility or suspicion or distrust or disrespect or disregard or disparaging thoughts, words, or actions.
 
Paul gives us a personal glimpse into his own transformation from a high-octane braggart about his Jewish ethnicity to a new man in Christ. Look carefully at what he says about his own adaptability:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. . . . To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. . . . I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19–21, 23)
 
Here’s the strangest and most surprising thing about these words. Even though Paul was ethnically a Jew, he said, “To the Jews I became as a Jew.” What does that mean? How can a Jew become a Jew? Does it mean he had switched ethnicities and was now a Gentile outside the law, so that he could sometimes “become” a Jew? No. Because he also said, “To those outside the law I became as one outside the law.” Well, who was he?

He was a Christian. He was a new creation in Christ — a new kind of human being. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The calling of this kind of person — this new creation — is “to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). Christ died to “create in himself one new man” (Ephesians 2:15).

The more you think about these words in a world like ours — I mean a global world like ours — the more astonishing, radical, and revolutionary they become. Almost every country and every region of our world is torn by racial and ethnic tension, or outright violence. It is a global and contemporary problem — in many places a problem of deep and deadly proportions.

No follower of Jesus has said more important or more explosive things about race and ethnicity than the apostle Paul. My world was blown up by this man. And I love him for it. I shudder to think of what I could still be apart from Paul’s radical call to a new humanity in Christ. I wouldn’t have preached the way I preach. I wouldn’t have lived where I live. I wouldn’t have the friends I have. I wouldn’t have written the books I have written. I wouldn’t have the same hopes for the church and for heaven that I have. And I wouldn’t have an African-American daughter. I would be impoverished spiritually and relationally.
At times I feel that I have scarcely begun to see the glories of Christ in the cross and what God achieved by it. But I have seen something. I have tasted enough of God’s glorious aim for the age to come to know some of what it might look like here. Here’s a picture of the future that the blood of Christ purchased:

Worthy are you [Lord Jesus] to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9–10)
 
People from every ethnicity, ransomed by the blood of Jesus. Why? So we might be priests serving the Lord together in one temple, co-reigning in one kingdom with Christ. No hostility, no tension, no distrust, no disrespect, no disregard or disparaging thoughts. Only perfect love and peace and justice. I love this picture. And I love the apostle who painted it for me.
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:

Ephesians 2:13-16
Ephesians 4:24
2 Corinthians 5:17
1 Corinthians 9:19-21
Philippians 3:7-9
Colossians 3:11
Revelation 5:9-10


Questions to reflect on:

1. Have any of your life's experiences regarding race made you believe against what the word of God says? 
2. What are the ways in which the world's viewpoints regarding racism go against the word's viewpoint?
3. How are you living your life to show that Christ has made us one?

"But as for me, the nearness of God is my good..."
(Psalm 73:28)
​
If you’ve walked with the Lord for any length of time, you will have realized that walking on His path doesn’t mean the removal of hardships, disappointments, suffering or sorrow. In fact, for some it may even feel as though surrendering to Christ has given permission for those things to take a comfortable seat in your life.
 
If we are honest with ourselves, we may have been tempted to look at the lives of those who live without any obedience to Christ and envy their ease of life or their successes in their pursuits. We may even have asked God, “why do they live with such ease while I am experiencing hardship?”
 
Take comfort in knowing that we aren’t alone in comparing our lives with those who are not of faith. In God’s word, we see Asaph, a psalmist, describing the tension of those temptations.
 
Asaph’s obedience to God wasn’t a road paved with roses. It cost him a lot as he experienced many hardships and pain. In despair and discontentment, he found himself almost slipping from the ways of God as his attention was fixed on those who seemed to be living “the life.” The hardships he faced tempted him to envy the arrogant. Seeing the ease by which they did whatever their hearts desired looked appealing to him. Ease and wealth followed them and he thought he wanted what they had. He thought their life was more comfortable than being comforted by God in his distress. He thought…until he came before the Lord’s presence and received the wisdom to see clearly.
 
“Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end…” (Psalm 73:17)
 
You see, in the Lord’s presence, Asaph was reminded of the eternal weight of glory that surpassed the momentary affliction that he faced. (2 Corin. 4:17-18) God’s wisdom reminded him that suffering and hardship IN the Lord is far better than ease and wealth WITHOUT the Lord. Those that David envied didn’t understand that they stood on slippery grounds. Destruction would be their end because their pride kept them from the knowledge that without God, their labor, their wealth, and their pursuits were all in vain. And although they increased in wealth by the world’s standards, their soul was depleted. "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew `6:26). But in Christ, while hardship and sorrow may visit us, it isn’t without Hope of the One who has our soul in His hands.
 
Asaph came to his senses and with great humility said one of the most powerful declarations in Scripture,
 
“Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
 For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.” (Psalm 73:25-28)
 
We live in a world that tempts us to desire the easy road. To chase wealth. To take comfort in the world’s good. To blame God for discomfort and to take matters into our hands instead of trusting in the Lord. And just like Asaph, we can find ourselves embittered by life’s circumstances and seek ease outside of Him.

But God.

“Nevertheless, I am continually with You. You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me…” (Psalm 73: 23-24).

This psalmist reminds us of the keeping power of God for those in Him. God knows our frailty-that our flesh and heart may fail, but He doesn’t hold that against us. His saving grace keeps us and helps us look up when what we see in our world is brokenness, disappointment, sorrow, pain, and hopelessness.

He gives us clarity and perspective. He gives us the wisdom to see that His nearness is better than any wealth we can accumulate; to see that there is more peace found in His nearness than any success we can achieve. And there is more hope found in His nearness than any hopeless situation we find ourselves in.

His nearness is our good. And our righteousness found in Him is NOT in vain. Rest in that beloved.
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:

Psalm 73 (Encourage you to read whole chapter)
Proverbs 3:5-6
Matthew 16:26
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
2 Corinthians 5:9
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
1 Peter 4:12-13
1 Peter 5:7-10
Jude 1:24


Questions to reflect on:

1. When are you most tempted to look at other’s lives in comparison to yours?
2. How do you see God working through your hardships?
3. How does this devotional tell you about God’s character? Your character?
4. Do you believe that God’s nearness is your good? Be honest with yourself and ask the Lord to help you believe in His goodness despite your circumstances. 

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."
(Deuteronomy 6:5)
​
We live in a world that encourages our hearts to roam where it will; to let it wander and find its belonging in many places. Rather than being anchored by one thing, we are lured be free in our pursuit of many.

On the contrary, all throughout Scripture, we see God’s instruction for His followers to devote their whole hearts to Him. To anchor their hearts in Him and Him alone and not be tempted by anything that can fragment their devotion in Him and to Him.

In the Old Testament, we are reminded of this truth in King Solomon’s story. Solomon was the son of King David and was chosen by God to rule after David’s death. Before David died, he reminded Solomon of God’s Word and promise to him,

“…if your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth will all their heart and all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.” (1 Kings 2:3).

Solomon sat on the throne and followed the Lord with all his heart. Even when the Lord appeared to him in a dream and offered him whatever he desired, he chose to be given discernment and understanding to rule the people God had given him rather than riches and long life. God was pleased with his selfless answer and gave him not only wisdom, but riches. God said of him,

“Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you…” (1 Kings 3:13).

He would be the one to build the temple for the Lord to dwell with His people (1 Kings 8:22-66). Many would travel great distance to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And as he aged, he continued to grow in wisdom and riches and God blessed the works of his hand, as long as he walked in His ways and devoted his whole heart to Him (1 Kings 10:23-29).

We read this part of Solomon’s story and are encouraged by his devotion to God and God’s faithfulness to His people through Solomon life and obedience. But then we are confronted with the reality that our heart “is more deceitful than all else and is desperately wicked; who can understand it” (Jeremiah 17:9).

You see, the wisdom that God gave Solomon didn’t keep him from the wickedness of his heart’s desires. We are told in 1 Kings 11 that, “King Solomon loved many foreign women...” God deliberately warned against marrying women of other nations because He knew they would “turn your heart away after gods.”(vs. 2) Nonetheless, we are told that “Solomon held fast to these in love.” (vs. 2) In his old age we find that “Solomon’s heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God… and he went on to do evil in the sight of the Lord and did not follow the Lord fully” (vs. 4-6).

It’s tragic to see a life whose heart was wholly devoted to God be ruined by that heart. But it can happen to any of us. Our maturity in the Lord shouldn’t lead us to boast in our own strength or wisdom but it should lead us to daily depend on God’s mercy and grace to keep us and to guard our hearts all the more (Proverbs 4:23). I would venture to say that as Solomon grew in wisdom and riches and saw the way God had blessed him, he let the guards of his heart down, forgetting the enemy of his soul who desired to turn him away from God’s path.

In the same way ladies, growing in our knowledge and love for God is also growing in our discernment that the evil one is always lurking, desiring to sift us as wheat (Luke 22:31). More so, in our fallen nature, our hearts are prone to wander, to be distracted and fragmented. Sadly, our hearts are quicker to hold fast to the things of this world than of God. But it doesn’t mean we can’t walk wholly devoted to Him. It takes intentionality. We don’t have the luxury to be lazy with our walk in the Lord. As my spiritual mother would always tell me, “we can’t have any competing passions with the Lord.”

As we continue on in the newness of the year, my prayer is that our hearts would have no competing passions outside of the Lord. We will encounter distractions. We will be tempted to go for what seems good rather than what is God. May our hearts be found wholly in Him. May we guard our hearts diligently, feeding it with the truth of God’s word, soaking it in the glorious presence of God through prayer and worship, uplifting it in sweet fellowship with His saints and daily renewing it with the promise of grace and forgiveness through humility and repentance.
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:

Deuteronomy 6:5
1 Kings 2-11 (I really encourage you to read Solomon’s story this week and let God speak to you in them)
Proverbs: 4:23
Psalm 1 (whole chapter)
Jeremiah 17:9

Questions to reflect on:

1. Have you found your heart wholly devoted to God or fragmented by distractions and idols?
2. We are told that Solomon “held fast to these [foreign women] in love” (1 Kings 11:2). What are things in your life that isn’t of God that you are holding fast to in love?
3. How will you be intentional with guarding your hearts in the Lord?