Jealousy- The Sin No One Talks About

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O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster. --William Shakespeare

This past month I have been studying jealousy. Why? Because it has profoundly affected my life. Not only has there been times where I have been its victim. There have been opportunities to be its perpetrator. I believe it was the instigator to a life-changing series of events. It is also the very thing I have fought against since life morphed into a "new normal".

Last month I read R.T. Kendall's book, Jealousy--The Sin No One Talks about: How to Overcome Envy and Live a Life of Freedom. He explains its origins, how it operates, the devastation it can cause, and the method of overcoming it. I love how Kendall goes through the Old and New Testaments and points out the jealousy in the extremely familiar stories. Some of the stories like Joseph obviously portray the "green-eyed monster". Others, I had never thought about as containing an element of envy in the story line. 

Here are a few tidbits from the book that I gleaned...

The origin of jealousy is to be found in our natural insecurity.

Jealousy manifests largely as uncontrolled resentment and is often triggered by the fear of losing something.

Unforgiveness means resentment, and resentment is at the heart of jealousy.

God uses jealousy for His own purposes.

The way to confront a jealous person...You say nothing...You are in a no-win situation, so don't waste your words!

Jealousy is one of those sins that we really don't deal with. We rarely admit we have a jealous heart. No one wants to be seen as jealous so we hide it as best we can. If you struggle with this scary emotion or you have had your heart torn to pieces by another who was jealous of you then I highly recommend this book. It speaks to those that need to get rid of jealousy and those left wounded by it.

As a side note, I am a firm believer in that where there is jealousy there is a need for forgiveness. If this is the case in your life, R.T. Kendall wrote another practical book called Total Forgiveness which contains steps on how to forgive. I found it to be a great help as I walked through hurt and struggled to let go of it.