Choosing Celebration

Thanks for joining us for another daily encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading, titled, Choosing Celebration, was written by Monica LaRose. Writer Marilyn McIntyre shares the story of learning from a friend that the opposite of envy is celebration.

Despite this friend's physical disability and chronic pain, which limited her ability to develop her talents in the ways she'd hoped, she was somehow able to uniquely embody joy and to celebrate with others, bringing appreciation into every encounter before she passed away. That insight, the opposite of envy is celebration, lingers with me, reminding me of friends in my life who seem to live out this kind of comparison-free deep and genuine joy for others. Envy is an easy trap to fall into.

It feeds on our deepest vulnerabilities, wounds, and fears, whispering that if we were only more like so-and-so, we wouldn't be struggling and we wouldn't be feeling bad. As Peter reminded new believers in 1 Peter 2, the only way to rid ourselves of the lies that envy tells us is to be deeply rooted in the truth, to have tasted deeply experienced that the Lord is good. We can love one another deeply from the heart when we know the true source of our joy, the living and enduring Word of God.

We can surrender comparison when we remember who we really are, beloved members of a chosen people, God's special possession. We're called out of darkness into His wonderful light. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 1 through 3 and verses 9 through 10. Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

And now picking up at verse 9. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Let's pray. Loving God, a source of all that's good, help us to let go of envy's lies, the kind of lies that suck out joy and rot the bones. Help us to instead celebrate the countless beautiful gifts of life in your kingdom. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Alisha Reisinger, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.