This morning we are making space for God to root out jealousy from our hearts. At the root of jealousy is pride and the combination can steal our freedom in Christ, impact our lives negatively, and create disruption in our relationships. What is jealousy?
Jealousy is defined as resentment against a rival, or a person enjoying success or advantage, etc.
Pride defined is as an inordinate opinion of oneself, importance, or superiority.
Jealousy and pride steal our freedom…..
Today I want to look at the life of Joseph who was a prideful young fellow. God had a high call on his life and his pride had to be rooted out of his heart. So God, in His mercy, took Joseph from the pit of pride to the palace of humility.
Joseph had a dream that sheaves of grain and moon and stars bowed down to him and his brothers took offense as it appeared that he was going to rule over them. They were already jealous of Joseph because their father had shown him preference by giving him a coat of many colors. (Warning: Parents, don’t give one child a special gift and do nothing for the other kids… a recipe for disaster!) So as the story goes, God, in His mercy, allows Joseph to end up in a pit (thrown in there by his brothers) and later in life ends up in prison.
BUT GOD….
After Joseph had his pit and prison time, he was raised up to be the second in command of all of Egypt and his power and influence saved Egypt and many people from famine. And as God would have it, He saved his father and brothers as well. Pride, once Joseph’s downfall, turned into humility.
Jealousy is something that we all deal with at one point or another and a significant way to deal with jealousy is to deal with pride. So when jealousy rears its ugly head, unset the trap of pride and ask the Lord to help you not take the bait.
Friends, as we make space for God, let’s make space for humility. Let’s do a heart check every day and if we sense that jealously is lurking in the depths of our hearts, ask the Holy Spirit to do a work in us.
For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly…. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
