Jealousy is ugly and when we welcome it into our heart’s home, that’s exactly what we become.
“But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”-James 3:14-16
Don’t. Open. The. Door.
When jealousy comes knocking ..it reminds me of the children’s book ‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie’ it goes on to say if you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want milk, if you give him milk he’ll want etc. Well, if jealousy comes knocking, she’ll want you to open the door. If you open the door , she’ll want to come in, if you let her in, she’ll want to stay− and she has luggage.
Jealousy is a bitter, ugly thing to get involved with. The saying goes “there’s pleasure in sin for a season” well with jealousy that isn’t the case. When you’re dealing with jealousy you never feel like you’re winning , in fact you feel like you’re continuously losing.
To quote another saying:
“For every loss, there is a hidden gain and for every gain, there is a hidden loss.”
I believe this goes hand in hand with jealousy− let’s break it up.
For every loss:
When we welcome jealousy into our heart we lose things. I would dare to say if you are holding tight to jealousy , you can’t hold tight to your joy. If you’re holding tight to jealousy, you can’t hold tight to your peace. If you’re holding tight to jealousy, you forfeit over your security, your love, your gentleness, your goodness, your power, temperance, etc.
“For where there is envying and strife, there is confusion and every evil work” [ James 3:16 ]
So. If you abide in jealousy, confusion and every evil work abide as well.. through this process the things of God within us are slowly choked out by our sin.
“For there art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee.” [Psalm 5:4]
“For God is not the author of confusion.” [1 Corinthians 14:33]
There is a hidden gain:
As jealousy preys on our lack of praying and our fading godliness it also corrupts us with new things.
” If you let jealousy in, she’ll want to stay− and she has luggage.”
To quote James 3:16 again… Every. evil. work.
That’s heavy stuff. With this new loss spiritually there is a hidden gain- a gain of rage, strife, bitterness, insecurity, etc. All ugly symptoms of a bad case of jealousy. A truly important thing to know about jealousy is that it’s not called a little green monster for nothing. As you feed that little monster, it grows and grows and grows. Jealousy can be the fundamental building blocks for murder [ physically and spiritually] and other malicious acts.
Consider this,
was it not jealousy that bid Cain to murder his brother Abel (AKA the first ever murder in history) ?
was it not jealousy that led Josephs brothers to cast him into a pit and sell him into slavery?
was it not fear of impending jealousy that bid Abraham to lie and say his wife Sarah was his sister (not once but twice) ?
Jealousy comes with a cost; count that cost.
For every gain, there is a hidden loss:
With jealousy- you don’t gain anything beneficial to you, others, or God. It just picks at you, eats at you, and robs you of your good. Wether you’re jealous of someone’s material possession, the way your father seems to treasure his step-children more than his own biological children, wether it’s in your relationship with your boyfriend or girlfriend or- maybe the lack there of. The co-worker that received the promotion “you should’ve got” or the person that seems like life comes easy to them. No matter the case, the diagnosis is still the same, jealousy comes with a spiritual death sentence; it’s out to destroy you.
“A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.” – Proverbs 14:30
That’s what jealousy does, it rots your bones, from the inside-out you grow more and more bitter.. However there is a cure!
The Bible, speaking of keeping His commandment and trusting God and loving Him, it says:
” it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones.” – Proverbs 3:8
Marrow is defined as a substance contributing greatly to the strength and vitality of our bones.
So, today if you are jealous. If she’s unpacked her bags and has been eating from your fridge and sleeping on your couch, kick her out!
Kick her out with the word of God, keeping His commandments and trusting Him, acknowledging Him in all your ways ad she has to go! God’s word is the cure for rotten bones.
James 3:15 says that “this wisdom” this wisdom of jealousy, of discontent and longing for something God doesn’t have planned for you right now or the belief of this myth that is driving you crazy in your assumptions- “it decendeth not from above but is earthy, sensual, and devilish.”
Right above Proverbs 3:8 that we just spoke of is Proverbs 3:7 ..
“Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”
Really take the time to soak in and correlate all these scriptures . God is saying depart form evil, depart form jealousy. Be not wise in your own eyes, in this wisdom that does not come from Me, trust Me. Cling to Me and My commandments.
“God’s word is the cure for rotten bones.”
Jesus loves you and it is not His will for you to have jealousy for a sloppy roommate. Kick her out and enjoy your new found freedom and peace.
jealousy has no home here.