Jealousy does not have its own emotion

Trying to change jealousy and anger once you are in the emotion is like trying to control a car skidding on ice.  You can handle the situation better if you can steer clear of it before you get there. 

Jealousy does not have its own emotion.  You cannot see jealousy in the face of a person....... like you can pain or sadness.  You have to look at the other emotions attached to it..... like anger and resentment.

Jealousy and anger are emotional reactions to believing something in your mind that is not true.  By changing what you believe in your mind you can control these destructive emotions.

We become jealous when we focus on what we want, what we don't have right now, or we fear that we will never have it. Deep jealousy can cause you to even want someone else to lose what they possess. Jealousy can even arise when you compare your abilities to someone else.  When you  focus on what other people have and what you don't have, you will continue to have these dark emotions. 

The most basic and long lasting remedy is to have gratitude and appreciation for what you do have in your life.  To get rid of jealousy you have to suppress all comparisons to others.  You can develop a habit of jealous thinking or you can change that habit.  

Envy is counting someone else's blessings instead of our own.....  
Jealousy is a choice.  

Make the choice to change.

Fertilize

Our experiences are the fertilizer in our life. Most fertilizer as you know, stinks. No one wants to share their stink with everyone. But when it is placed in soil that is ready for planting seed, it can grow the sweetest fruit.

Our experiences become our wisdom. What we share from experience cannot be disputed. It was a personal, is was real, and it was life changing.

Our greatest ministry is birthed from our deepest pain. Ministry does not have to be behind a pulpit. Just sharing your experience can be the most rewarding of all ministries because God turned your test into a testimony.

Why Do We Gossip?

I wish I could say I have never gossiped but I can't. I had a relative who was known for being a gossip who knew everything about everyone who passed by their house. I never wanted to be like that. Instead of judging that person, I should have been praying for them, because to my own shame, I found myself listening and repeating gossip just as they had done. After one such time when I was caught up in something I had no part of, I was so grieved with disappointment, that I isolated myself from friends and family because I did not want to be tempted to listen to or repeat any form of gossip. I felt the less I knew, the better off I would be.

We gossip because it makes us feel important, we feel we are in the thick of things that are going on. Or sometimes if I was offended by someone I would rehearse their flaws or failures because it made me feel justified. I have gossiped because of Jealousy, foolishly thinking someone else's blessing has lessened God's supply of blessings for us.

I never thought about why we gossip until someone was hurt by my tale bearing. It gave me an all too clear understanding of how our words can wound someone.

So, learn from my mistakes, if someone comes to you with any information that does not involve you personally, suggest that before they say anything, they go to the person that offended them. We are to cover and honor those around us whether or not we feel they deserve it, just as God's grace covers us.

Be blessed by being a blessing today.

A Time .... To Prune

There are times when you want to be free from where we are.  You are ready to move on.

But sometimes, you are grounded where you are because God has some pruning to do in your life. He has to expose some unhealthy emotions so that you can deal with them and learn to control them so they won't get you in trouble for the next season. 

We keep pushing on that door, begging God to open it and let us through, but God's time never expires, it is always perfect.

God has to fix the inside so that you won't be carrying around the baggage that would hinder you from doing what He has planned for you.  He protects us from ourselves and from others that we could possible hurt if we were allowed to do something premature.

Trust Him.  Know that He has your best interest at heart.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you, "says the Lord, plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope".

Some Things God Cannot Do

A parent never likes to see their child sad or hurting.  But sometimes life happens and we are helpless. 

My daughter has been struggling with being single.  Some days she really gets discouraged.  And lonely.  On these days I try to offer encouragement, but it doesn't give her what she is needing, which is a solution to her problem, so it is not well received.   I try to inspire her by reminding her of all the blessings in her life: her job, her church, her family, or relate how other people struggle in their relationships and it would be better to be single than to be in some relationship that is abusive or without love. None of these provide the answer she is looking for.

I thought about how we do that to God too.  We have a problem that we can't solve and we need an answer, so we call on God and when he does not give us the answer we are looking for, or no answer at all, we become inconsolable, sad and depressed.  God tries to remind us of all the good He has done in our life.  He brings to our mind all of the bad that He has kept us from.  Instead of being grateful, we stay depressed, worried or discouraged and fail to see all of the things he has blessed us with.  He must think, "How ungrateful my child is being".  I can imagine we hurt his feelings too.

I wanted to help my daughter. I wanted to give her the answer.  But there are some things I cannot do.

Just like God.

There are some things that God cannot do.

1. God can't break a promise.
   My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips.
   —Psalm 89:34
2. God can't remember sins he's chosen to forget.
   I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
   —Isaiah 43:25
3. God can't make a loser.
   Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.
   —2 Corinthians 2:14
4. God can't abandon you.
   Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.
   —Deuteronomy 31:6
5. God can't stop thinking about you.
   How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with you.
   —Psalm 139:17-18
6. God can't stop loving you.
   Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
   —Jeremiah 31:3

DROP THE ROCK

This morning I read something I had never noticed before....

In, John 8:4-11 When the angry mob was about to stone the woman caught in adultery, Jesus rose to His feet and said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” He spoke one sentence, and then He knelt back down again and wrote on the ground. As His words registered, “they went away one by one, "BEGINNING with the OLDER ones”

The older ones dropped their rocks and walked away first.... I had never noticed that before.

I remember throwing the first stone. Maybe not the first stone, but I joined the mob and cast my stone of gossip, my self-righteous opinion, and my judgment. But life teaches us to drop the rock. When we’re young, we are more arrogant and quicker to pick up the rock. Too many times, being right becomes about winning.

Over time, I have learned some hard life lessons. After making so many of my own mistakes, I am less inclined to drive home others’ failures. It’s easy to judge. We all have opinions. But we all know what it feels like to fail. I no longer pick up rocks and I stay away from mobs.

Even if I'm right, if I am wrong in the way that I am right, then I'm wrong.

 ‪#‎lifelessons‬ ‪#‎nolongerachild‬ ‪#‎droptherock‬

Prayer for your Children

Janice Sjostrand taught us to pray this prayer over our children at the 2015 Reign Conference in Beaumont, Texas.

Numbers 6:24-26

Verse 24 - The Lord bless you and keep you- for it is written, “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and He addeth no sorrow with it.” (Prov. 10:22).  If I bless you with a new car, you will have to put gas in it, keep good tires on it. If I bless you with a new house, you will have to pay taxes on it and do maintenance to keep it. I can't bless you without adding something to it that will cost you. But when He blesses there is not attachment that will weigh you down. So when I pray for my children, I pray "The Lord Bless you and keep you".  I can't go with you every day and in every room, so may the Lord keep you. When I say these words, heavens hears me over whoever I am saying them to The Lord said you say these words if you want to bless my people. You say it and I will do it.  I did not make them up. So I am quite sure that when I say may the Lord keep you, that I have dispatched heaven to walk with you when you leave.

How often do I need a blessing?  Every day. You walk every day, you eat every day, you wash every day.  You need this blessing every day. And your children need to hear them. 

Verse 25 -the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you;

Some children are people pleasers and some of you have been people pleasers, Just like the children's book "Are You My Mother" always searching for someone to look down at you and say, 'You're lovely, you're precious, you’re special'.  But most people put a price tag on that.  They will make you pay something for what you want.  You have to behave a certain way.  It is called pay to play. But when the Lord makes His face to shine upon you, what does that mean?  It means he makes eye contact.  If I could just get into your presence you could fix anything that is wrong with me because you are God and nothing can resist you.  Like standing under a sun lamp.  You will just fix it all.  You are saying when you pray this that you are asking God to arrest this person, hold their face in your hands and look you in the eyes.

And then when He does, the scripture says he cannot behold iniquity.  When he sees us through Jesus he looks past our filthiness.  We can't dress up good enough for him, because no flesh will glory in his presence. So when I say the Lord make his face shine upon you, I am saying, overlook (that's what gracious means, it means to overlook) when he looks at you, I am praying that he does not look at all the things your accuser points out to you. Because you look pretty good to me.  I know you are human, but I believe Jesus wants to populate heaven with people like you. I believe he wants to give you a crown.  You won't wear it, you will throw it at his feet, but I think he wants to crown you, in fact David said, Bless the Lord Oh my soul, who crowneth me with loving kindness and tender mercy.  I want a crown I don’t deserve.  He has blessed me, so I have tender mercy around my head, not the voice constantly reminding me of what I am not and can't do.  I wish this for you. I wish this for your children.

Verse 26 - the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace."  After the Lord makes eye contact with you, he doesn’t want to make you self-conscious, so  he skips over the dirt, mistakes and errors.  I see a little child laying on the pew beside his mom, with tennis shoes on and his hair tussled, I have scanned him from his head to his foot and he looks just perfect to me. I am lifting my countenance upon him, and he is sound asleep and doesn’t even know it.  I am moved with compassion.  So you see what I am doing, I am smiling.  When the Lord looks at you and your children, I pray that he looks at you with the same tenderness that I look at that little boy.

I believe what is wrong with the world is that they are looking for a smile or approval from someone who could care less. But if your kids and you can catch his eye and he can look at you long enough, and you don’t look away, you see that is what the Song of Solomon was saying, he sang to her, remove your veil and let me see your face. And instead of getting judgment or correction, he smiles.  There is something so satisfying  about him looking at me and saying you are everything I want you to be.  You are just fine.

He has danced with us, laughed with us, played with us. And smiled with us.  I feel his approval, his favor, his love. 

“A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just” (Prov. 13:22).

 “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2).