I find that blogging right after I teach is a bit
challenging as I feel like I've said what the Lord would have me say.
But, I found this in the message on jealousy that I taught 9 years ago
and like Peter, feel like it would be good to bring it to your remembrance.
[11] If a son asks for bread from any father among
you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a
serpent instead of a fish? [12] Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a
scorpion? [13] If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask Him!" Luke 11:11-13
Do you see what that is saying? It’s saying, if
it’s good for you and you ask for it, God will give it to you. The only
things He withholds are things that are not for our best.
Do you believe that? If you do, you
won’t be jealous of someone else. You won’t want anything someone
else has if God doesn’t want it for you. In psalm 107 there is a
phrase that is repeated. It is this. Oh that men would
give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the
children of men!
Want more than what you have? Jealousy is not the
means to get it. Israel was an ungrateful nation. Here’s
just a few things that Psalm 106 declares about them: They soon
forgot God’s works, they did not wait for His counsel, they tested God and He
gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. They
envied Moses and Aaron, the earth opened up and swallowed them, they made a
calf and worshipped the molded image. Thus they changed their glory
into the image of an ox.
One phrase keeps popping up in this psalm – they
forgot. They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things
for them. God responded to that forgetfulness, that
ungratefulness. . Look at Psalm 106:15
And He gave them their request,
But sent leanness into their
soul.
He sent leanness of soul and He allowed their enemies to
have victories over them. Is that what you want? Leanness
of soul. That’s a terrible thing. It's an empty feeling,
One of the definitions of this kind of leanness is "scarcity". I
think that describes it well. In our effort to satisfy the longing
of our soul, we seek temporal fixes and we end up, not with fulfillment, but
with scarcity. Too often the fruit of jealousy is leanness of
soul. Nothing – no possession and no status is worth that.
