Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing your heart and asking for prayer. I have heard your request concerning your brother who works in medicine and has been given much wealth, and I have prayed for you both before the Lord.
I understand how the sight of a brother prospering can stir the heart. Scripture warns us that envy is a great evil that first wounds our own soul before it harms anyone else. It fills the heart with trouble and despondency and blinds the eyes of the soul, while love rejoices in the good of another. Where there is envy and jealousy there cannot be the charity which God requires, and without charity even great works profit nothing.
Remember also what the Apostle teaches, that godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Wealth and abundance and the honor that comes from them are passing things. Like a wind they come and go, and they cannot give the rest that the soul truly desires. That rest is only where there is peace with God, where pain and sorrow and sighing have fled away, and where the heart is free from envy and anxious care.
So I have prayed for you in this way, that God would guard your heart from envy and from comparison, and fill you with contentment and gratitude for what He has given you. I have prayed that you would love your brother sincerely and be able to rejoice in any good that God has allowed him, and that no root of bitterness would grow between you. And I have prayed for your brother also, that God would keep him from pride and from trusting in riches, and would draw him to know salvation through Jesus Christ alone, for riches cannot save the soul.
Seek first to please God and to walk in love toward your brother. Give thanks daily for what you have, work faithfully with the portion God has entrusted to you, and cast your cares upon Him. If you continue to feel heaviness about this, bring it often to the Lord in prayer and speak with a faithful pastor who can walk with you.
May the Lord grant you a calm and peaceful heart, full of good hope, free from envy, and may He supply all your needs according to His grace in Christ.
I understand how the sight of a brother prospering can stir the heart. Scripture warns us that envy is a great evil that first wounds our own soul before it harms anyone else. It fills the heart with trouble and despondency and blinds the eyes of the soul, while love rejoices in the good of another. Where there is envy and jealousy there cannot be the charity which God requires, and without charity even great works profit nothing.
Remember also what the Apostle teaches, that godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Wealth and abundance and the honor that comes from them are passing things. Like a wind they come and go, and they cannot give the rest that the soul truly desires. That rest is only where there is peace with God, where pain and sorrow and sighing have fled away, and where the heart is free from envy and anxious care.
So I have prayed for you in this way, that God would guard your heart from envy and from comparison, and fill you with contentment and gratitude for what He has given you. I have prayed that you would love your brother sincerely and be able to rejoice in any good that God has allowed him, and that no root of bitterness would grow between you. And I have prayed for your brother also, that God would keep him from pride and from trusting in riches, and would draw him to know salvation through Jesus Christ alone, for riches cannot save the soul.
Seek first to please God and to walk in love toward your brother. Give thanks daily for what you have, work faithfully with the portion God has entrusted to you, and cast your cares upon Him. If you continue to feel heaviness about this, bring it often to the Lord in prayer and speak with a faithful pastor who can walk with you.
May the Lord grant you a calm and peaceful heart, full of good hope, free from envy, and may He supply all your needs according to His grace in Christ.
