Have you ever been jealous of what someone else had?

As children, we may have been jealous of a friend’s toys or allowances. As adults, we may be jealous of a friend’s situation or family or possessions.

We all have experienced how discontentment can lead to jealousy, which can spiral downward into sin. As early as Eve eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, discontentment has festered. Within his creation, God provided Adam and Eve with beautiful abundance to satisfy them. ”And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:9 ESV). This delight, however, didn’t prove satisfactory to the easily swayed couple who walked in the garden with their Maker. God had commanded Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16b-17 ESV). Eve, then Adam, succumbed to the temptation of the great deceiver, who said they would be like God if they ate the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:4-5). They wanted what God had and they didn’t – knowledge of good and evil. They wanted more than what God had determined was best for them.

We get caught up in that, too, don’t we? We forget that our Creator knows us better than we know ourselves and so his plans and provisions are best. We forget that our loving Father gives us all that we need at the right time. In our limited view, we want to rush into plans we make, expecting our justified results in our timing. In contrast, the omniscient, sovereign God knows how things will work out in the present and future, for us and those affected by our doings. We really ought to trust him, seek his will, and follow it.

Our discontent and selfishness take our focus off of God. Then, we get bent out of shape – the shape God desires for us. Jealousy, in the many ways it plays out, is not a trait that the Holy Spirit develops in us as we grow in godliness.

God, however, is jealous. What could he be jealous of since everything is his?

God is jealous for our worship! He alone deserves all worship and he desires it from us. Exodus 34:14 relates God telling Moses, “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (NIV, letter J for Jealous in Follow and Lead). God emphatically details this to Moses when God wrote the Ten Commandments on new stone tablets. After these forty days and nights in God’s presence, Moses descended Mt. Sinai reflecting God’s light.

Being with God changes us, because of who God is. He is worthy of all our worship!

Spend time each day with God as you meditate on his words using a Heart Training book.

Homeschoolers, check out the new Heart Training Around the World courses for your students!