Hollywood Prayer Network On Jealousy And EnvyMuestra

GET RID OF ENVY AND JEALOUSY

"Our envy of others devours us most of all." Alexander Solzhenitsyn . 

"Never underestimate the power of jealousy and the power of envy to destroy. Never underestimate that." Oliver Stone

PRAY:  Lord, these verses help me to understand the severity of being jealous and it helps me to understand the difference between feeling jealous and acting out, based on those feelings. Yesterday I learned that You love me so much, You're jealous of my attention, time, and priorities. Today I read that jealousy is worse than cruel anger and overwhelming fury, and that I must rid myself of all envy. Lord, I ask that You help me to understand my motivation for my jealousy and envy and then help me to control my response to my jealous feelings, so that I don't act out in sin. If I feel jealous, would You help me to define it and then have Your Holy Spirit respond through me with patience, wisdom, and discernment. Thank You that I can depend on You to work through my motivations, emotions, temptations, and understanding of right and wrong. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

REFLECT:  Let's ponder the motivation for and difference between having a jealous thought and then acting upon that thought. God says that He's jealous that we're worshiping other things and other beings instead of Him. His motivation is that He wants us to fully live the abundant life that He created for us. Then He responds by telling us His thoughts and lovingly invites us to get closer to Him, waiting patiently for us to come to Him. And He knows that sometimes that's never going to happen, and yet He waits. When a person gets jealous, he or she often gets angry, argues, takes revenge, hires a Private Investigator, accuses the other person, or even commits suicide or murder! The sin is not in the thought but in the action taken in response to that thought. If you feel jealous and immediately bring that thought to Lord and ask Him for help, for strength, for understanding, and for perspective. Then, reach out to a strong Christian friend and ask them to help you to work through the motivation for that feeling, getting their perspective and Godly counsel. Listen and apply what you hear and watch the Lord take that negative emotion and turn it into good. The danger comes when the motivation for our jealousy is selfish and sinful, and because of that it gets out of control, becoming worse than cruel anger and overwhelming fury! It leads us to all kinds of other awful sins and ends up destroying us and the person we're jealous of. So, God's response: Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. If we can't divinely discern and control our thoughts then we have to get rid of them!

ACT:  There seem to be three steps to take to get control over jealousy, envy, and covetousness: 1. We have to die to ourselves and live only for Christ; 2. We need to pray for the Lord and seek His face to help us overcome these powerful temptations: and 3. We need strong, mature Christians around us to advise, support and pray for us. Do you have those three steps in place? If not, what do you need to do to make all three of those happen. Remember, you have to act pro-actively in order to avoid sin. You will not avoid or overcome jealousy on your own. It will sneak in when you least expect it. But you can prepare for it, knowing that your human. Evaluate these three steps and make sure you include reading, singing, meditating and memorizing scripture all along the way. If you commit to these steps, you are on your way to living a life of freedom and joy.