Wisdom From Above

“If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.”

~James 3:13-18(NLT)~

Jealousy and selfish ambition…certainly two things that we don’t readily want to admit to struggling with are they?  Unfortunately, they are part of our sinful nature and something we do have to deal with.

When I looked up the definitions of these words, I stumbled across something interesting.  Check it out:

“Jealousy is that unpleasant emotion you feel when you think someone’s trying to take what’s yours. Jealousy is called the "green-eyed monster" because it can make people obsessed with how they compare to others.  But don't confuse jealousy with envy, which can sometimes be a slightly more positive emotion.  It's no fun to feel envy or jealousy because both make you feel inadequate. Envy is when you want what someone else has, but jealousy is when you're worried someone's trying to take what you have.”  

~(Copyright © 2013 Vocabulary.com)

Keeping that thought in mind, I came to the conclusion that jealousy has less to do with others and everything to do with me and my own insecurities and feelings of inadequacy.  When we feel like we are lacking and we don’t clearly understand who we are in Christ and what God really thinks of us, it’s easy to be jealous of others and threatened by their strengths and successes.  Not only that, but it gives Satan a huge foothold in our lives that He can grab onto and believe me, if this is an area that you struggle with, He will hold onto it for dear life because of the power it has and the havoc he can wreak there.  He will sow seeds of discontent, deception, discouragement, and longing that can tie us up in knots and keep us distracted from the Truth and the abundant and joy-filled life that God intends us to have.

“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.” 

~James 3:17

God’s wisdom gives us an alternative to comparing ourselves to others and what they have.  If we truly understand at a heart level who we are, how deeply and perfectly we are loved, and our identity is found in Him, we can yield to others without feeling threatened or jealous…we can support and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ as they experience successes along the way…and our motives and intentions will remain pure as we seek to serve and follow God’s will for our lives.

My prayer this week is that God will reveal and remove those seeds of insecurity and jealousy in my heart…that He’ll bring to the surface any selfish ambitions that I might be disguising or trying to justify so that I can deal with them.  But I also want to boldly ask Him not just to remove them, but to replace them with His truth and His wisdom…His ways.  He will do that for us…He wants to do that for us!

~Kris Samovitz