Day 2627 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Genesis 4:6 NIV

Yesterday we talked a little about the original sin and how each of us are born into that same broken way of living. And since that first sin against God, sin has only grown and found new ways to manifest in our lives. Arguably one of the most common ways in which sin shows up in our hearts is through jealousy. We spend so much time comparing our lives to those of people around us and we find ourselves asking all sorts of questions as we start to see the differences.

Why can't I have what they have? Why can't I get the same results that person received? Why do they seem to have more in their life than I do? Why it is harder for me? Why is my life so unappealing when their life seems perfect? Why does God seem to have more favor and love for other people? Does He love me at all?

You can see how once we start off down that road, it just snowballs into this massive disconnect that leaves us with nothing but anger and resentment. And in fact, anger and resentment and jealousy are the foundation of one of the very first stories in the Bible. Cain and Abel. Both of the brothers offered sacrifices to God, yet God looked more favorably on Abel's than He did on what Cain presented. And in his anger and jealousy, Cain killed his brother.

Again, it snowballs. Comparing our lives and the results we receive and the blessings we're sent against anyone else is a serious danger. It causes envy to take root in our hearts and as it grows, it slowly causes us to forget all that we have to be thankful for in our lives. It starts blocking out our ability to see joy and contentment in our lot in life. Envy refuses to let us be thankful because there's always something else to want, always something that isn't good enough, always something that we don't seem to have enough of in our opinion.

And slowly, we find ourselves questioning God and becoming angry over our self-perceived lack of blessings and favor and we start wondering why God loves someone else more than He does us. After all, they have it better, they have the things we want, they're living the life that we want to be living, so therefore God must like them more than us. Don't we see the uselessness of self-pity and loathing in this victim's mindset that we've chosen to adopt?

Friends, so much of the anger and discontent in our lives is negativity that we bring upon ourselves. We refuse to be thankful for what we have. We only allow ourselves to see everything that we still want. We lose sight of God's countless blessings and displays of love in our lives because all we see is what we think is lacking. But the fact of the matter is that none of us are lacking anything. If we have food to eat, water to drink, a roof over our heads, and something to clothe ourselves with then we're blessed beyond measure!

But still, we get it in our minds that we don’t have enough, don’t do good enough, don’t receive enough, and we allow this idea that God shows favoritism to close in around us and leave us feeling as if we shouldn’t even bother trying because anything we do won’t make a difference. We just settle for thinking that we’re destined to be seen as the outcast loners who are never loved enough. But in truth, the real underlying problem is that sin leaves this gaping hole inside of us that causes us to never feel full or content or grateful because all we see is the hole.

The simple truth is that God owes us nothing. And living like He does, living like we should have everything we want will only create this divide where sin can flourish and grow to control everything we think, say, and do. And it all starts with this choice to simply not be happy with who we are, what we've been given, and the lives that God has written for us. No, they may not be perfect in our opinion of perfection. They may not be filled with everything we want. And they definitely won't look like the lives that other people are living. But we can't allow ourselves to forget that life itself is a blessing that we simply don't deserve.

We have to stop the comparing. Our stories aren't meant to read like anyone else's. Our blessings come in different forms. God shows His love and favor and kindness in different ways. But He shows them all to every single one of us. But jealousy only proves that we can’t see that. Anger clouds our ability to be thankful. Envy rots us from the inside out and causes us to overlook the fact that God loves us more than we can understand, but we forget that because He does so in a way other than how we want it to look.

Folks, we need to learn to be happy with what we have. We need to learn to find joy in our lot in life. We need to understand that anything good we have, anything that we have enough to share, anything that we have that we could do without is something that we don't deserve. If we can learn to find joy in the life that God has given us, then envy and anger and greed and every other form of self-pity won't be able to drag us further into a sinful way of life that we simply should not be living.

The saddest part in all this is that God sends each of us blessings upon blessings upon blessings out of His endless love for us. But when we waste our lives comparing our blessings to those of someone else, we start forgetting all that we've been given and overlooking the love of a Father who gives us more than we need, and far more than we deserve. Shouldn’t be that way friends. Time we appreciate what we have and stop wasting our lives worrying about what we don’t.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold