I’m excellent at getting excited and then forgetting. So
excellent that if I hadn’t just heard a sermon series at church on spiritual
gifts, I might think my forgetful excitement was a spiritual gift. I kid.
Recently I sat down and read through the story.
It was a
story that brought me to tears, frustrated my sinful heart, encouraged my
sanctified and saved heart, motivated me to stop looking daily at my stats (as
if looking at them will change anything anyways), and ultimately reminded me of
things I already knew but had for some reason let flee from my mind.
One thing she highlighted in the book was something that
Jesus has been telling me for weeks.
“When we look to the right or the left at the grace given to others long fully or pridefully, we can miss the beauty of influence.” (Be Quiet & Say Something, Jessi Connolly)
As a blogger it's easy to look around and question what I'm doing. I can read blogs that have thousands of readers and find myself in a jealous and envious stream of thoughts. I can get angry at those bloggers because I don't see why God lets them have their sphere of influence.
Or I can go to Jesus and say here I am, sinful and small - use me for Your goals because I know that then You will receive glory in the process.
Jesus has been calling me out on envy and jealousy for
weeks, and if I’m truly honest, months and years.
I went through Galatians with the #SheReadsTruth crew a few
weeks ago. There was one day that punched me in the gut.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.(Galatians 5:19-21a ESV)
I read that portion and could check off the things that I
don’t struggle with currently. I've done this before and written about being skewed while reading scripture (as in reading only what I want to read in scripture).
I got to jealousy and casually stepped over it, ignoring the
word.
Strife, not me, yay me! . . . jealousy . . . oh fits of anger, well sometimes but not too
often . . .
I kept going until I hit envy.
Oh Jesus, you wrote it
there twice for me didn’t you?
How do I stop being jealous?
By being satisfied in Christ.
So I’m working on
it. Failing mostly but attempting to go to Jesus for satisfaction and letting
go of control.
I have so many desires for where I want my life to go.
But more so I desire Christ.
Oh Jesus, get glory in my life.
Forgive my jealous and envious heart.
