Hollywood Prayer Network On Jealousy And EnvySample

ENVY IS NOT FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT

"If someone is leaving you behind, and you are becoming jealous and embittered, keep praying that he may have success in the very matter where he is awakening your envy; and whether he is helped or not, one thing is sure, that your own soul will be cleansed and ennobled." William Law

PRAY:  God, my heavenly Father, You tell us very clearly in the Bible that being jealous is wrong in Your eyes. And then You stress it by listing envy as well. You say these acts of the flesh are obvious, and You warn us that those who practice these sins will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's a serious warning that I haven't thought about before. You then say, through James, that wherever we have envy there will be every other evil practice as well. And Proverbs says that envy will rot my bones. So, Lord the only way I can have life is to clear my heart of jealousy and envy, and cry out to You for mercy. You lay out serious consequences to these thoughts, as well as actions, and I need to take Your words more seriously. God, thank You for your clear warning. I have work to do!

REFLECT:  The facts from these verses are: Jealousy and envy are sinful acts of the flesh; those who practice these sins will not inherit the kingdom of God; "where there is envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice"; and "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones". We learned yesterday that jealousy comes out of our hearts. So, if a peaceful heart gives life to our body, we have to extract every form of jealousy and envy from it. The dictionary definitions of jealousy and envy are so similar that they each list the other word as their first synonym. So, in using them interchangabley it seems even more powerful that both words would be on this list of sins. That drives home the point even more of how serious these are. We want to live victoriously in the kingdom of God now and forever, and we want peaceful hearts. We don't want disorder or rotting bones, so whether we take these warnings literally or not, we know any form of jealousy or envy is bad. We can choose to rationalize little thoughts away, or we can take captive every thought and give them to the Lord. How would you choose to take every thought captive?

ACT:  You can start playing a mind game that will help you remember to catch yourself every time you have a jealous thought. If you can play this game with yourself then you can stop the jealous thoughts before they ever turn into actions. The moment you want something a friend, co-worker, or even a stranger has, choose at that moment instead to compliment that person. Celebrate his or her item, achievement, or award by telling them how great it is. What a great achievement, etc. At first you will be choosing to obediently take a positive action to counter your negative thoughts. If you keep doing it, you'll soon actually mean what you say and feel good about celebrating the other person, instead of thinking of what you want for yourself. You have to remind yourself about the game and take action immediately in order to break the habit of getting jealous, envious, depressed, or even angry. You can turn that jealousy immediately into a kind word and a selfless heart. You might want to practice some scenarios before it actually happens. And then go for it and watch your heart slowly transform.