Proverbs 27:4 - Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

Who can stand before the torments of the stomach and mind when they gaze upon that which they seek but cannot obtain? Cain could not stand before it, thus he killed his own brother. Joseph’s own Brother’s could not stand the thought of their own little brother someday being ahead of them in rank. For the next few devotions we are going to look into the sin of jealousy and the many different ways that it may come to surface. We will not get too in depth with the amount of verses we will use, though we could if we desired to do so, but instead we will stick with the above scripture reference and use some practical everyday life situations to expose those areas in your own life that may struggle with jealousy.

One of the first things that I would like to observe about jealousy is that it is consumed with ones self and nobody else. Cain, even after his sacrifice was rejected and Abel’s was accepted, was still given the chance by God to do better than Abel and please God (Gen. 4:3-9). However, we can see from this whole account that Abel wasn’t upset because God was displeased with his offering. He was upset because he was outshined by his brother. Many times we are the same way. We become agitated because we have been out done by our brother. It isn’t even so much that we wanted to be successful. We just wanted to win the battle, and when we do not win the battle our heart begins to throb as we see the victor holding their trophy…, but it isn’t fame or even recognition that we all are seeking. It is something else, and in the next few devotions we will dive into this issue and by God’s will may these areas be exposed in your life.

If you would like to hear the sermon I preached on Jealousy in its entirety click on this link: Listen Here ...