The Real Trick To Overcoming Jealousy

Overcome Jealousy and Rejoice in Friends’ Successes

Have you ever been jealous of a friend’s success? Have you had other friends come to you and tell you that someone else is gaining something, but they are doing so at your expense? Let’s look at how to overcome jealousy in a relationship.

You may be wondering a little about how John came to be in the situation he was in that day.

The Setup

Let me tell you a quick story about how John’s friends saw that he was losing popularity. Those who formerly went to him were going somewhere else then.

At the time John was trying to Improve people’s lives and point them to the Savior of the world..

After John realized what they said was true, he may have struggled himself because of seeing the disappointment of his co-workers.

And, for a fleeting moment, he may have been more and more tempted to be jealous himself. He realized they all needed to learn how to overcome jealousy in a relationship.

The Seeming Turn for the Worse

Then the bottom fell out from under John. His co-workers lamented that it was not just a few, but everyone was going somewhere else .

For a moment that seemed to mean he wouldn’t be able to continue enjoying his success as a preacher.

As you can imagine, he could have gotten in bad shape and desperate, but he wasn’t ready to give up on his dream of working with Jesus, not against Him.

This is a good place to read the actual Scriptural text of this true story found in John 3:22-30.

The Discovery–How to Overcome Jealousy in a Relationship

Then John remembered that the friend of the bridegroom rejoices over his friend’s marriage. There is no jealousy in a situation like that.

At that point, everything changed!

John figured out three truths:

  • First of all, his friends were genuinely concerned.
  • Second, he really understood that true friends rejoice in each other’s successes.
  • Third, he could let his friends know that only God has a right to be jealous

After all, in the Ten Commandments, God let’s us know that he is a jealous God, and that we should have no other gods before Him.

The Transformation

Because John remembered that the friend of the bridegroom rejoices over his friend’s marriage, he was able to:

  • Rejoice in the success Jesus and his immediate followers were seeing.
  • Continue to point others to Jesus, only now in a greater way.
  • Rejoice in the fact God is the only true God.

Then he lived his new dream of working with Jesus, not against Him, and he never had to worry about jealousy, either on his part or his co-workers’ part, ever again. Each of them had learned how to overcome jealousy in a relationship.

And that’s why he and all of us following are so passionate about sharing with you about “Rejoicing in Friends’ Successes” so you can experience working with Jesus and your friends, not against them! The main thing however, is to glorify Jesus most of all.

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to check out some more here.

If you are a bi-vocational minister wondering about some additional “tent-making options,” you might be interested in this page too.
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