“And once you get it (your jealousies) all gathered up in one pile of discontentment, you need to pour out your heart to him. All your frustration. All your discontent. Let God know that you know he could have done better by you. . . . Go ahead and tell him how unhappy you’ve been with the way he made you and treated you. He can handle it.”- Andy Stanley (emphasis author’s)
In Chapter 18 (“Good Reason to Celebrate”) of Enemies of the Heart, Andy Stanley discusses the danger of jealousy. Because jealousy takes control of our attitude toward people. And those people have done nothing more than pull ahead of us in a race of our own creation. Thus, they’re not even aware of this heated competition we’ve invented.
Furthermore, we need not work very hard to turn jealousy into resentment. Pastor Stanley explains:
“Without any real effort on our part, jealousy becomes resentment. But resentment needs justification, so we go looking until we find it. Once we find it, we’re safe — there’s no need to resolve our feelings because we know they’re perfectly justified. And once jealousy turns to resentment, our jealousy knows no bounds.”
In addition, Andy notes, as you continue to dig beneath the surface, you’ll find jealousy simply manifests the fact that you’re not getting what you want. Also, your dissatisfaction reflects on those around you. This further complicates things. Yet, just like the moon reflects the sun’s light, those around you aren’t the source of your problem. They only reflect back at you what originated in your heart.
Finally, when you focus your emotions on someone else, that fans the flames of jealousy. However, you begin to quench jealousy when you focus on your own heart.
Today’s question: What jealousies make up your one big pile of discontentment? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Celebrate until you feel like it”
