Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, back again. This week we're pulling intel from my 31-day resilience reset. I built this free resource for men who are tired of drifting and ready to stop being stuck. The reality is simple: you do not reach a destination by accident. You get there by intent. So if you're ready to stop stalling and start leading, I want you to head to undaunted.lifeslash 31 days. Today I want to warn you against isolation and envy. So let's go ahead and get into the reading for day 18 of the 31 Day Resilience Reset. It's from Psalm 73 and Proverbs 18. Let's start with the first three verses of Psalm 73, a psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Okay, so to set the scene here, Asaph starts off with an acknowledgement that one, God is good to Israel, and two, God is good to those who are pure in heart. And then he pulls out a mirror and looks at it, and he sees his reflection, and he recognizes that he was this close to missing out on the goodness of God, and it wasn't because of random chance, it was because of his own mindset. What mindset? Envy. He was envious of the people around him that he knew were wicked, but they were also prosperous. And I'm assuming that many of you guys have looked like I have at different people at different times and been envious of their money and their success and their accolades and their fame or whatever. And it's one thing to look at someone and be attracted to or even mesmerized by what they've been able to accomplish and accumulate, but there is a very, very thin line between being able to appreciate a successful person and envying them. So Asaph then in Psalm 73, verses 4 through 15, continues talking about these wicked people, but prosperous people, right? Essentially detailing just how wicked they are. Again, he's not confused here. He's very aware of how they are while simultaneously being very aware of how he's prone to be, right? And you can tell by the writing that Asaph is really in his own head here, right? There's there's not a description of him bouncing these ideas off of anyone else. He seems isolated and he's considering all this while in isolation. And man, you guys should know this by now, but isolation is a killer. It's it's especially bad for men. I mean, in so many ways. Let's go to Proverbs 18:1. Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire, he breaks out against all sound judgment. Now tell me that's not completely true, right? When a man allows himself to become isolated, his thinking turns inwards as well. What he wants for himself, why he's not where he should be in life, who screwed him over, why the world seems to be against him, and it just kind of spirals down from there. Because again, when you're isolated, you're literally left with just yourself. That's what isolation is. There's no one to bounce things off of, no one to challenge our presuppositions, no one to give us a reality check, and perhaps most importantly, no one to remind us of what we should be focusing on. But back to Psalm 73, Asaph helps us out with that, so starting in verse 16. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned therein. Truly you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin, how they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream when one awakes. O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant, I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless I am continually with you, you hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish, but put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. If you are spending too much time looking out at everyone around you, or down at your own navel as you lament your circumstances, might I suggest you do what ASAF did. He re-entered community and he focused his attention and worship on God. Come back tomorrow as we wrap up the week.

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