Have you ever had Facebook envy? If you have been on social media for any time you have probably fallen victim to this thought process.
It often goes like this. Everything is going well in your life and suddenly you open up your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feed.
And suddenly you see the highlight reel of everything you ever wanted present in someone else’s life.
Then you feel the greatness of your good news being swallowed up in the perfection of other people’s accomplishments.
Suddenly your elation with what you have is swallowed up with envy of what God has given someone else.
But fortunately, this condition of Facebook envy is not incurable. Read on to discover the three truths that can turn your envy into encouragement.
Facebook envy is fuelled by the perfection lie
When we find ourselves being plagued by Facebook envy we have to deal with the root cause of it.
What we fail to realize when we enviously gaze at other people’s profiles is that we are only seeing the highlight reels of their life.
Scripture gives us the complete picture of all of our lives. That picture being that we are all sinners and none of us have it all together.
So what should we do instead? The best action we can take is to stop comparing ourselves to other people and start comparing ourselves to how far God has taken us. Ask questions like this.
- Ask How You previously fell short
- Ask How Much less you fall short because of What Christ has done in you.
- Praise God for the progress He has made in you.
Our envy is swallowed up in encouragement when we praise God for what He has done in our lives instead of pouting about what He has done in others lives.
Stop mistaking friends timeline for Gods timeline
We all know the feeling. We have been asking God for something for years.
Maybe we have been working ourselves to death for a certain opportunity. And then it happens.
We open up our Facebook feed and see our blessing on someone else’s feed. It is then that Facebook envy hits hard.
- Immediately we want to give up
- We think God is holding out on us.
- We falsely believe others are better than us.
When that moment comes we have to look at our situation through Romans 8:28.
Why do we get envious looking at other people’s timelines?
Because we falsely assume that the blessings we see on others’ timelines are a sign that God is not working in our lives.
But instead, we can exchange our Facebook envy for faith in a faithful father.
We can know that whatever is missing from our timeline that God is working it out for our good.
So when we see someone else’s successful ending may we not write off the great story that God will work out for us.
Facebook envy requires a fake future
- A golf club in Tiger Woods hands
- A basketball in Michael Jordans hands.
- A pen in a best selling authors hand.
Facebook envy takes root when the highlight reel on others’ social media highlights our failures. But guess what there is good news. Belief.net has a great article on dealing with envy.
Everyone has their gifts and passions that God has gifted them with. Everyone knows that Tiger Woods is a great golfer. Wouldn’t it be crazy if he was depressed about his singing abilities?
When we see others victories on their timeline. We need to ask ourselves is pursuing to be someone else robbing us of God’s plan for us?
We may not be good at what they are good at. But we need to realize that when we follow the gifting’s that God has given us we will find joy.
And we can turn our envy of others into the encouragement of others.
The link above is an affiliate link that helps support the work of this blog. If you want to find out more on how to handle social media in a Christ-like manner check this book out.
It has really helped me to use Social media more effectively in a Christ-like manner.