Psalm 73:3-12 English Standard Version

³ For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
⁵ They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
⁷ Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
⁸ They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
¹¹ And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
¹² Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.

We are all subject to emotions for better or for worse. Searching for biblical examples is a daunting task as the history of mankind is fraught with extremes of emotions. If we are to control our emotions rather than becoming victims of them, we must choose wisely the examples set before us.

Here in the Psalm of Asaph we find a confession of condition that might allow us to look at both sides of emotions, controlled and lack of control.

Beginning with prosperity, it is the wicked heart that suborns arrogance in the face of success. The confession of Asaph of envy is aimed at arrogance and not on prosperity. Most of us have not tasted prosperity to the point of being in danger of arrogance. We can however relate to envy at the success of others.

What if that success we envy is in the area of spiritual gifts? Surely it cannot be wrong to desire to be successful in service gifts?

What if those gifts are neither natural nor born of the spirit in us? Is it right to be envious of gifts that we do not possess?

Proverbs 5:12-14 English Standard Version

¹² and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴ I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”

It is hard to admit we are responsible for our own feelings of insecurity. They are after all our emotions.

A favored theologian wrote a book called “Security of the Believer”. Being interested in my own security I bought the book and read it cover to cover. It contained line upon line and precept upon precept of scripture, an endless stream of scripture. It did not help me with my own insecurity.

The theologian believed that all the answers to all of our problems are in the bible. While he was right, what he didn’t contain in his book was instructions on how to extract help from the scriptures alone separate from a shepherd. Teacher is only one aspect of the gifts of service and not the answer to every problem.

I cut my finger and my eye cannot help me type. It is the other fingers that help my wounded finger.

It is often the ones who are closest to us in maturity that can relate to our feelings where the mature in Christ are decades removed from dealing with our problems even if they suffered the same maladies.

Empathy helps with insecurity because the basic emotion of insecurity is loneliness. We feel like we are alone in this battle of the mind. We are not and it takes time in order to extract the help we need directly from scripture. In our infancy we are still learning how to hear the Holy Spirit.

In our maturity we tend to forget the struggle of the initiate to find themselves and know where they are in the family of God.

The infant wants to run but will stumble before they learn to control their bodies.

Emotions are no different.