VS. April 7, 2025 Devotional

PSALM 100:1-2, 4 | ¹Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. ² Serve the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him; bless his name.

It is impossible to be grateful to God, to enter the Temple or a church sanctuary “with thanksgiving” and at the same time to be envious of others. Envy is a reaction to all of life’s asymmetries and inequalities. In any gathering of people there are so many differences—differences of strength and athletic skill, of beauty and stature, of wealth and power, of intellect and understanding. Some of these derive from nature and some from the random and arbitrary features of our social and personal background. These differences mean that our possibilities and opportunities, as well as our challenges and limits are not the same. Comparing ourselves to others will get us caught up in pride, because there will be many “below” us in attributes or achievements, and in envy because there will be many above us. The more comparison we do, the less we will remember that all these differences are irrelevant in the end. God judges the heart, and evaluates each person uniquely, not comparatively. We are all equal in our need for grace, our call to love, and our potential to follow—regardless of our relative social standing or personal gifts.

Do you enter God’s courts “with thanksgiving?”

Gracious God,

Free me from endless comparisons, from pride and envy. I ask in Jesus’ name.

Amen.