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!

SINGLE LIFE SERIES: The One Reason People Are Jealous

Dictionary.com defines jealous as: 

1.feeling resentment against someone because of that person's rivalry,success, or advantages 

2.feeling resentment because of another's success, advantage, etc..

I don't remember what what I was thinking about or what was going on at the particular time when the Lord spoke this to me, but it sure did help me and it continues to help me. I do believe I was driving my car though but that's just about all I remember about it. What  I do know is that when He speaks, it's to me first, which means, I needed to hear it. 

He said to me, "There is one reason that people are jealous. It's because they don't realize how great they are. If a person really knows who they are they don't have room to or even think about being jealous of someone else because they are fully aware of the greatness that is inside of them". 

I've already shared with you the dictionary definition of jealous. Now I will share an even better definition that I heard from someone on Christian television years ago. I have no idea who he was but I'll never forget what he said. He said, "To be jealous of someone is to feel or believe that that person has an unfair advantage over you."

What the Lord said to me about jealousy and what this man said about what it means are more powerful to me than the dictionary definition. Both statements get right to the core, the heart of the matter.  When I thought about the times that I have felt jealousy toward someone else, (and yes I admit it. Why else would the Lord speak that to me?)  at the core of that feeling was that they were greater than I was in some way. I felt somehow that they had something good to offer that was way better than anything I could have to offer. In essence, in the moments that I felt jealousy, I felt like the other person was better than I was or that I was less than. I had feelings of inadequacy and non-importance. I didn't feel that there was something wonderful inside of me that people were waiting to partake of. 

The Lord wanted me to understand that He has created all of us with some greatness and much potential. We just have to be aware of that greatness and begin to cultivate it, and allow Him to teach us how to walk in it. When we spend all our time looking at all the wonderful things that others are accomplishing instead of tilling our own grounds of greatness, it's easy to feel that we have nothing of significance within ourselves. The Lord wants each of us to allow Him to show us the gifts that He has placed inside of us that are as meaningful as any other gift in any other person.

Have you ever heard someone say something like, "Everybody ain't able!" Or in the case of say, a single woman who is jealous of the fact that a man chooses another woman instead of her, she may say something like, "Well, I guess if I had her body or her hair" or whatever, "I could have men coming after me too!" Or, they may say something about her family or upbringing that they may feel was better than their own. Whatever she may mention about that woman is really her speaking what she feels is that woman's unfair advantage over her. When a man does it it's the same thing.  He may point out another man's car or other possessions, or even his body build or upbringing.  It just simply points back to that area of your own life where you feel like if it had been better, you'd be better, or more desirable.

God didn't create us so that the value we place on ourselves would be based on what we have, how we look physically, or even our education or any kind of status. When we were born we all came into the world naked, owning nothing. But we all came into this world already equipped with the potential to live out our wildest dreams and more, for did He not say in His word that He is able to do "exceeding, abundantly, above all that we ask or think"? (Ephesians 3:20) So our value and self-worth should be based on what He has said about us and not what we may or may not have compared to someone else. What we all have is the potential to live our lives to the fullest.

This is not to say that we are all called to live on the same level, doing the same things, or that if I live up to my full potential I will end up exactly where someone else is. But it is to say that as each of us discovers what it is inside of us as individuals that makes us wonderful and great in God that we will each become so fulfilled living our own lives that we won't have room to think that someone else has an unfair advantage over us.  Think about it. If someone has an unfair advantage over you, who gave it to them?  You are really saying that God did when He created them. You need to know that that's simply not true.

Allow me to be even a little more transparent and say that since the Lord first spoke that to me, I have still have feelings of jealousy at times.  But I am also constantly reminded that all that means is that there is some untapped greatness inside of myself that I have not discovered or begun to walk in. I can think of my gifts in that very moment that I haven't operated in on a level that is even pleasing to myself.  So if I can see room for improvement in myself, I know that it's nothing compared to what God sees.

Do you find yourself feeling jealous of people at times?  Let it be a sign to you that there is some treasure inside of you that is yet to be discovered. The only difference between what you see in the other person who seems to have an advantage and yourself, could really be how they feel about themselves, no matter what you see outwardly.  For what if he or she is clearly not as physically attractive as you are?  What then is their advantage?  Probably not what you might think. It probably just simply boils down to the fact that they have done what you need to do: accepted themselves completely. Accepted God's love for them. Believed in the wonder that God created when He created them and allowed their confidence to rest in that.

Allow your self-esteem to come from the truth of the Word of God, and your daily walk with Him. Allow Him to build you up from the inside out with His love and care for you, His tender heart toward you, and His protection. As you do this you will find that old green-eyed monster will rear his or her ugly head less and less.