ANOTHER MAN’S SUCCESS IS NOT YOUR FAILURE

Dear Believer,

One day in our family, my wife served dinner. My youngest child, who loved good food, bounced to the table and uncovered his food. He looked so happy and satisfied already. He said grace over his food and you could see that he meant it. Then in a sing-song, happy-baby voice, he said across the table to his mother, “Thank you mommy!”

Now just as he began to eat, his immediate elder sister uncovered her own food. My boy looked away from his food and peered at his sister’s food. What he saw depressed him, and his face fell. It seemed to him that his sister was better served, and it didn’t seem fair. Suddenly he began to complain. He felt cheated. He suddenly realized that he deserved more than what he was given. Gone out the window were the attitude of thankfulness and the expression of appreciation to mummy. He became unhappy.

As I looked on, it suddenly dawned on me that this was a perfect illustration of the reason behind much of the unhappiness in this world. The Spirit of God spoke to me, “All envy proceeds from unhealthy comparison.” People are generally happy with what God has given them until they start measuring themselves up to others in an unhealthy manner. 

Some people, would be more successful if they minded their business, focused on their own life and be diligent, instead of monitoring what goes on in their neighbors lives.

The easiest way to make yourself sad is to look up to another person’s achievement while looking down on your own. In everything, men are different from each other. That applies to speed too. In life, some go faster and others slower. That is just a fact we must accept, and nothing can change that.

It works this way: you appreciate your wife until you start comparing her with your friend’s wife. Suddenly she is not as beautiful or well-behaved as your thought. You are thankful for your house until you visit a friend’s new home, and suddenly your house is too small and ugly, and the neighborhood terrible. Or you are now unhappy with your husband because you have seen a friend’s husband being so romantic. Or are unhappy because your best friend is getting married, and you are still single and searching. The list goes on and on.

Envy and jealousy are killers of happiness.

Proverbs 14:30 says,

A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones .

In Job 5:2, we read,

“For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.”

Envious people are silly people. Envy is a vestigial function of childhood stupidity – a manifestation of ‘superfluity of naughtiness’ that we have been warned about. (James 1:22).

There are enough adversarial situations in this world that are naturally attacking your happiness, why make yourself your own enemy by making yourself sad because of someone else’s happiness? Be happy with those who are happy, and wish no man any evil. Those who think evil upon others attract evil to themselves. Ecclesiastic 10:8 says “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”

If your neighbor becomes successful in anything, rejoice with him. Your rejoicing with others is a seed you are planting for your own reward. 

The easiest way to make yourself sad is to look up to another person’s achievement while looking down on your own. In everything, men are different from each other.

When Cain killed Abel, it was a most foolish act. It wasn’t Abel’s fault that God rejected Cain’s sacrifice. If Abel never sacrificed, God would still have rejected Cain’s offering, considering Cain’s attitude. That God is blessing someone does not mean he hates you. Someone’s success does not mean your own failure.

So much energy goes into envying others that could be used to better one’s life. Some people, would be more successful if they minded their business, focused on their own life and be diligent, instead of monitoring what goes on in their neighbors lives.

There are things you just don’t know. The so-called blessed people you see may be where they are because of certain facts hidden to you. Maybe they worked hard for it. Maybe it is time for their own prayer to be answered. Don’t begrudge them their success. Your time will come as you work hard, pray and receive guidance from the Holy Spirit. Don’t act like they just got lucky and hit success through pure dumb luck. To think that about others is an insult to the God who blesses people.

And maybe they have become ‘successful’ through doing evil. You still have no right to envy them if that were the case. A wise king tells us this, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.” (Psalm 37:1-2).

In verses 35-37 of the same chapter he says,

I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

Peace is the signature of a life built on contentment. Such a life does not frantically pursue happiness; it has found joy in God. And remember, godliness with contentment will bring reward to you as you keep trusting God. (1 Timothy 6:6)

If you have anyone around you who has yet to come into the salvation and peace that Jesus gives, send them this message and tell them we all love them. Ask them to pray thus:

O God, I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Today, I confess Jesus as Lord, and affirm that He died for my sin, and was resurrected on the third day. I receive Jesus Christ today as my Lord and my Savior. I open my heart to the Holy Spirit. Thank God I am saved.

Have a blessed day!

Your friend,
Deon.
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For further studies read Psalm 37.