The problem with jealousy and envy



Freshman year a friend and I both applied for a leadership council on my college campus. I was in her dorm room one day, about a week after the application process. She asked me if I had checked my email. I said no I hadn’t. We then left her dormroom. On our way to the student center, she continues to encourage me to check my email. I was not sure why she kept urging me to check my email, but I finally did…I didn’t see anything.

I informed my friend I had not received any emails. She finally admitted that she'd received an invitation into the leadership council to which we both applied.

She obtained the position I was courting even prior to entering college.
And I, well, I had not.

 I was Jealous.

Skip to 4 years later, this same friend and I are both seniors in college. We are not as close as we once were, I would say we were more associates at this point. I was casually browsing Facebook and I see that she’s the student director of a large organization on my campus among other prestigious accomplishments. The envy soared through me.  I was resentful to say the least.

Here I was with my life slowly crumbling apart, my relationship was failing, my bank account was dwindling…I was overworked, and my grades looked mediocre at best. I cried to God, why me…why am I suffering so much, but this woman continues to receive everything I want. Why me Lord, why?

That’s when God checked me, and he checked me hard.

Job was a righteous man who the Lord blessed exceedingly and abundantly, then he lost everything, and through it all, he never cursed the Lord. He didn’t even ask ‘why me’
Job 1:21
 He said,
“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
    and I will be naked when I leave.
The Lord gave me what I had,
    and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord!”

Everything anyone has in life is given by God. So who was I to question the will of God. To make it worst, at that time I wasn’t living in righteous, nor was I operating under obedience to God. Who was I to be jealous, and to envy this former friend when God gives and operates how he pleases. 

Psalms 24:1
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
    
The world and all its people belong to him.

While I comforted myself with the words that ‘what God has for me is for me’ I know I didn’t truly understand or believe it at that point in my life.

Human jealousy is the feeling or showing of envy for someone’s accomplishments and things.
Envy is the discontentment and resentfulness aroused by someone else’s possessions and accomplishments.

Romans 9:21  states "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?"

While It’s easy to see what other people have and feel discontent with our own possessions, the ultimate reality is that at the end of the time, the will of God is what will prevail. proverbs 19:20

When we are jealous, when we envy, we say to God: where I am, and what I am is not good enough for me. I’m disregarding what you’re trying to do Lord, and what you’re trying to teach and the things you have done for me...I think I deserve more than this…or better than this.

And then the question I ask is : Who told you deserve more than you have?!

We live in a world where our selfishness has led us into a mindset that says that we are these amazing creatures and only good and great things should happen to us, but who told you this!?

Yes, God will bless and give you abundantly and exceedingly what you expect…but it will be according to His riches and for His glory, not yours. Ephesians 3:20 

Me right, Alexis left. I had just won the scholarship pageant in 2012
I am not saying be content in situations, nor with things IF God has given you a desire for more. But understand, the key words are: IF GOD has given you a desire for more…not if you have given you a desire for more.

In all my jealousy, in all my envy, I disregarded the multiple leadership positions the Lord awarded me between my freshman and senior year of college. I disregarded winning a scholarship pageant just a short while after losing the bid for that same leadership council.

The problem with jealousy and envy is that it undermines what God is doing for you. Because of these emotions, you shift your focus to what God is doing for someone else…and eventually your focus becomes someone else and not God
This breeds the perfect environment for idolatry.

Be content with what you have. Pray that you are in the perfect will of God, and know that What God has for you, is truly for you...no need to be jealous, no need for envy.

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