Your victories are my victories

At some point, most of us will feel jealous of someone, spiritually. It is easier, more subtle, and perhaps doesn't seem so bad to be jealous of someone's faith, their gifts, victories or even love for God. Or perhaps you just want to be more like someone.

Now, just to clarify - it is very good to have role models. It is good to learn from each other, to desire to grow more, and to be challenged by others too. But what I'm talking about here is different. And it is dangerous.

This is something I'm dealing with and have struggled with in the past too. I found that jealousy can show up in frustration, but underneath jealousy is a feeling of being short-changed. This often seems to be the root of the problem, and spiritually we feel like God is short changing us. I found that to be the case of a friend of mine. After a lot of spiritual growth in him I felt that I'd been short-changed.

The truth is that God has made us all unique and characterised us differently. We therefore have unique relationships with Him. Also we are all on different journeys and in different seasons of life. Sometimes we are growing we just don't even realise. And sometimes we have an impact without knowing.

But even after all this, it wasn't enough. So God led me to this awesome passage - 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20. Here, Paul is writing to the Thessalonians and he's basically saying how awesome they are! "After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when He returns? It is you! Yes, you are our pride and joy" (NLT).

In this letter, Paul goes on and on about how much their faith as encouraged other churches and how much he thanks God for them. Through this, God showed me that in His family, we share victories. Jealousy falls. Your faith is my joy. Your victories are my victories.