Overcoming Jealousy

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I once found myself getting jealous of an acquaintance and I can affirm that getting jealous is not a good feeling. I would be using myself as an example for every stance I would give in this article, so follow me squarely.

Jealousy can pan out in different forms actually, so it’s possible that I get jealous that things are working out easily for you and not for me, I can covet a trait in you and start getting sad as to why I can’t play out that trait easily; I can get jealous that you are so intelligent because I feel I do not match up to your standard. There are countless reasons that can make one get jealous of another. I love to say that jealousy comes first and then envy starts to creep in. Envy to me, is a higher degree of jealousy.

Going back to where we started from, I found myself getting jealous of an acquaintance on social media. This lady was making things happen in her own world, and I caught myself thinking that she could just be faking it for the gram. With time, I discovered that upon seeing her post, I would view them with so much jealousy in me. Right there and then, I knew something was wrong with me! Something was definitely wrong somewhere, something that needed to be addressed ASAP!

Which brings me to the purpose of choosing this topic today – “OVERCOMING JEALOUSY”. I sat myself down because I definitely needed to get to the root of the matter. It was my first time experiencing such a feeling and it didn’t go down well with me. It felt like Sin, it made me feel sad; sad that I was nursing such a bad feeling towards a fellow human.

Why should I feel sad that she was young and making it? Why should I feel she was faking it for the gram? Even if she was, why did I have to take it so personal?

Thankfully, I was able to discover that the feeling I was nursing wasn’t from God and it didn’t make me feel human in any way.

If you ever find yourself feeling some kind of way towards your fellow human and you feel ashamed and bad about it, I would love you to remember what Hebrews 4:14-16 says:

“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

And so, I did not shy away from the fact that I felt some kind of way, I approached God and talked to him about how I felt and what I could do to stop feeling jealous about her success and the Holyspirit laid it upon my heart to say a word of prayer for her whenever I saw her post. Quite difficult, right? But I started it.

Prayers like you will make it big with your business, you will prosper in everything you choose to do, you will forever be happy. It didn’t work like magic. So for each time I opened her post and I’m about feeling sad, I started confessing positive things out loud…guess what? It got to a point that whenever I was having my personal prayers, the Holyspirit would impress her name in my heart and I would have to say a word of prayer for her also. God was helping me!

Another thing the Holyspirit impressed on my heart to do was intentionally commending all her good works. So, for each time I see something good that she does, or each time I see she’s making progress, instead of just scrolling by and pondering on how she achieved it, I’d rather message her and tell her of how she’s doing so well with herself. Trust me when I say these comments I was giving were not from a place of jealousy anymore. I was overcoming it!!!! That pang of jealousy I always felt after viewing her post had started fading away. It felt surreal! I did it and so can you.

For you, the jealousy you feel towards someone could have gone deeper than mine, but trust me when I say it can be tamed completely with the help of God.

There are so many other things that can be done to tame jealousy, depending on what causes the feeling. In all you do, once you start to feel this way, talk to God about it and watch him show you the way out of it.

In summary, when dealing with the feeling of jealousy, you want to do these things:

Admit that the feelings exist and that the feelings are not from God and it’s not a good one.
Talk to God about it and about how you want it to stop
Intentionally speak positively about the person and into their lives.
Instead of wishing the person bad when the thoughts arises, bless the person.
Talk to someone you trust so much about how you feel.
Practice gratitude for what you have
Get busy and develop on yourself also.