Overcoming Jealousy

God is not withholding from you to bless someone else. 

Oftentimes I think that we really believe if something good is happening for someone else, that God doesn’t have enough for us or that we are forgotten.  Instead we should be celebrating the breakthrough, the blessing, the provision that God has poured out over someone’s life, knowing that if He can do it for them, He can do it for me too!  

If we look at the life of Joseph, we see that the jealousy that his brothers had for him brought them to some pretty intense decisions about what they wanted to do to Joseph.  Instead of killing him because of the bitterness they had in their hearts toward him, they decided to sell him into slavery and get rid of him forever.  They were filled with hatred for this brother because they saw that he was favored over them.  They heard of his dreams and saw his special coat given to him from their father – and they were done.  Instead of dealing with their jealousy, they let it build up to the point that they made decisions they probably would have never made without that jealousy.  

We can look at this story and learn a lot.  Jealousy wants to kill you from the inside out.  It will start to build and become the filter in how you see life.  It will cause harm to your relationships and have you start creating space between you and others.  It is deadly and we need to kill it.  

How To Kill Jealousy

Just because someone is receiving a blessing, God is not withholding from you.  He has enough for you and He wants to bless your life too!  It may not be in the timing you are hoping for or the way you think it should come, but He is constantly on the move and working on your behalf to bless your life.  The capacity we have to hold the blessing is sometimes held up by the jealousy we carry.  Let’s kill it and make room for those blessings to flow!  

What does killing Jealousy look like?  

1 – TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR LIFE 

See if there is any jealousy in you.  Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” 

Ask the Lord to reveal to you any place where you have allowed jealousy to take root. When he does this, it is because He loves you that He wants to reveal these things to you so that they can be uprooted . This is not to shame you and this is not because He is disappointed in you. He is going to show you what it is that you are lacking because He wants to remove the jealousy and fill it with what He has for you.

2 – HAND IT OVER 

Call jealousy what it is and release it to the Lord.  Ask Him to forgive you for partnering with it.  Then make an exchange for His love and His presence in your life. He will make an exchange with you as soon as you hand it over. 

Whatever it is that you are longing for and want in your life – God wants to meet you in that place.  He wants to be your answer!  He wants to fulfill your life.  

What is it you are waiting for?  A new career, a friend group, a spouse or a baby?  What about a promise to be fulfilled that God has spoken to you?  Do you know that what He has for you is so much greater than what you want to fill you?  He wants to fully satisfy your heart with who He is and His love for you so that when it is time for you to receive the blessing He has for you, it won’t be your answer, it will be an incredible gift that you know your Father gave you.  The icing on the cake!  

3 – LIVE A LIFE OF GRATITUDE 

Be grateful for the things that you do have and that the Lord has given you!  Jealousy can’t live where thankfulness is present.  

Joseph’s brothers allowed their jealousy to grow inside them.  They allowed the filter of how they saw life to be through this jealousy and it then grew to the point that they wanted to kill their brother.  

We may never get to that point – but the way we think of someone else or how we treat them can be just as bad.   It is time that we kill jealousy in our lives and walk with the Lord as He celebrates what is happening in those lives around us – and in our own life.  

God has so much for you and He is not withholding from you to bless others. 

Instead, He is with you in all that you are facing and He knows your heart and loves you! You may not be experiencing what you are longing for or waiting on, but what He is doing to get you there is so important.  When good things happen to other people, when “they” get something you’ve been hoping for, God is not withholding from you to give to them! When we believe that, jealousy will choke out the abundant life Jesus calls us to. 

Let’s clear out the jealousy and when the time is right, let’s be ready to receive all that He has for us!