Saturday, August 1, 2015

Things to Consider: An Unfair Advantage?



Years ago I heard someone define jealousy has “having the belief that someone has an unfair advantage over you”. When I thought about the times that I have felt jealousy towards someone that is what it boiled down to every single time. Somehow I felt that life circumstances, or God had given them an advantage that I didn’t have.
 
I have learned that the only people who have any kind of advantage over anyone else are the ones who simply put God first.  HE is the only advantage that any of us can really have. If we have an advantage over someone else it is only because we are taking advantage of Him while others are not. It’s not that God likes them and dislikes you or likes them more than He likes you. His love is no greater toward one than it is another.  God has no respect of person. What He has offered to one, He has offered to all, which is Himself. The issue is that all will not take advantage of what He has offered.

 
We are often so busy people watching that we become offended by other’s success or happiness.  We tend to focus on what others are doing or accomplishing, and not who has helped them to do or accomplish it. We look at what people have and it causes us to feel that somehow God made them better than us. Because our focus is on people and not God some of us have trained ourselves to believe that in order to get what we want we have to take advantage of and use each other for our own purposes.  Meanwhile, the one who has fully and freely given Himself to us for this very purpose sits by, unused. His heart breaks for us while we hit one brick wall after another, fall into one pit after another, lose one good relationship after another, whether it be friend, business, or romantic. His heart breaks for us while we sit and do nothing, feeling sorry for ourselves because we have taken the success of someone else to mean that we are not capable of success.

 
If everything you need is placed in front of you, and everything I need is placed in front of me, I can’t feel slighted or overlooked because you take advantage of what’s in front of you while I don’t do the same with what’s in front of me. I cannot allow my fascination with what’s going on with you, to override my fascination with discovering and walking in all He has created me to be. There are advantages in God, but He has given no one an unfair advantage. He has simply offered Himself to all of us. Those who take advantage of Him and all that comes with Him will reap the benefits. Those who do not take advantage of Him will not see the manifestation of many things that they desire, can imagine in their hearts, and even some things that He has spoken, because some things that God has spoken require some action or obedience on your part.

 
What I’m about to say may taste bitter in your mouth, but will be sweet in your belly if you receive it. When you do feel that the Lord is extending favor to another and not to you..when you feel that He is slipping them helpful notes under the table right in front of you...when you feel that He is sharing secrets of success with them that He is not sharing with you…it could be that that’s exactly what’s happening!  If you consider the fact that He has made Himself available to them as well as to you, and they have taken advantage of it and you have not, what would you expect? Would you honestly expect their life and their outcomes to look like yours? That my friend is what would be unfair and unjust of God! He has promised that those who seek Him will find Him. He has promised that if we call unto Him He will show us great and mighty things that we don’t even know about yet. He has promised that when we have searched for Him with all our hearts we will find Him. He has promised that while we are yet speaking, He will answer us. He has even told us that He is able to exceed our wildest dreams. So if you are seeing nothing great, receiving no answers to prayers, have not seen any expectations exceeded then it is time to take an honest look at yourself and what it is that you could have taken advantage of but for whatever reason chose to ignore.
 

The truth about jealousy is that it is an after- the-fact smoke screen. Although it has been known to be the cause of horrible things, it’s more of an affect than it is a cause. It is a result of your blurred vision and lack of understanding of how God operates and who you really are in Him. It comes into play after you have passed up opportunities to take advantage of the fact that you have a God you can pray to and receive answers.  If you didn’t feel that someone had an unfair advantage over you, and if you took the time to seek after God to find out who He created you to be and what His plan is for your life, jealousy wouldn’t be an issue.  If you allowed Him to reveal to you all the wonderful gifts and abilities He placed in you, you would never feel that someone else has more or better to offer than you do. You would not measure what you think is great favor on them by what you feel you are lacking.  You would be too busy enjoying the life that He has ordained for you to live. So what do you say?  How about we get busy enjoying that life that God has ordained for us to LIVE!

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