Green Tinted Glasses

The thief of joy

A weighted chain

The world loses its color

Through green tinted glasses

Smile that fades

Mind that races

Body that confines

Blame the green tinted glasses

Eyes once lit with life go dim

Heart content grows bitter

Do not let the monster

The monster with the green tinted glasses

Take your Light

~The Green Tinted Glasses~

The green eyed monster, most of us know as jealousy. The Green Tinted Glasses is my spin on "rose tinted glasses" and "the green eyed monster." Jealousy. Something we will all deal with in our lives at some point. People will be jealous of us and other times, we will be jealous of others. "Green Tinted Glasses" when jealousy consumes us, we see everything through that lens. It can grow so big that it literally feeds how we view everything. I find it interesting, because, while it's not something anyone is proud of, I think most people wrestle with admitting their jealous. It feels weak, of course it is a weakness, but wow admitting it leads to so much freedom. Having been jealous before, I can say, admitting it was the hardest part. I think if the enemy can get us to a jealous state, it can be easy for him to keep us there. Being jealous is believing that God doesn't have better for us in store. It's believing that what we see in someone else's life is for us too and that God is skipping us, forgetting us, or going to run out on us. We can get so caught up in seeing what others have that we forget God already paved our own path for us. God did not create you to walk that person's path, He created you to walk yours. And it will look different. The enemy is good at convincing us that God is not holding out His best for us. That if we don't have what that person has, we won't ever get it. Jealousy is a thief of joy, peace, contentment, and freedom. It is such a heavy weight that you chain yourself to that you just carry around. Because when you're jealous, you're living for something or someone you're not supposed to have right now. You're trying to be something that isn't supposed to be right now. The world loves to push jealousy. Of course what would we expect when the prince of the world only strives to steal, kill, and destroy? Jealousy kills faith, hope, and love. Jealousy suffocates the life out of us. 1 Corinthians 13 actually says that "love does not envy." True love is not jealous. The world attempts to distort how love is defined and what it should look like. The word is very clear on what love actually is. We cannot accurately love others like Jesus if jealousy is suffocating our capacity to love. Jealousy has such a hold on our society today because everyone deserves everything. What if we acknowledged that God is the Author and in our own doing we deserve nothing? Do you think that would fix the issue of jealousy? What if we viewed what we did have as a complete GIFT? What if Jesus' sacrifice and gift of salvation was enough? We are a selfish, unsatisfied people. Once we get one thing, we want another, we want what's next. We get a boyfriend/girlfriend, we want to be engaged, we want to be married, we want kids. We get a job, we want a promotion, we want a new position, we want a new job. Desiring these things isn't bad. It's when we begin to creep into jealousy, bitterness, and discontentment that it gets dangerous. The devil starts with discontentment and slowly lets it build to jealousy. If the devil can get us to be jealous, he can use it to hold us back from God's best for us. Because we no longer care about our lives, but the lives of the people all around us. What they have, what they don't have.

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

James 4:1-3

"A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."

Proverbs 14:30

Jealousy rots us all the way through. It is life sucking.

"But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth. Such 'wisdom' does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice."

James 3:14-16

As we can see from Scripture, jealousy causes quarrels, rots the bones, is earthly and unspiritual, and causes disorder. Where God leads, peace follows. There is no peace in jealousy. It is not from the Lord. It starts small, but grows until we cannot ignore it. It literally seeps out of the words we speak and the things we do where people around us can hear it, feel it, and see it.

"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness." -James 3:17-18

Let us lay down our pride, let down our guard, and surrender jealousy. I know, what they have is something you desire to have one day. You're not behind. You haven't missed the mark. God didn't forget you. God's timing is perfect and all things will work out perfectly. Trust Him. Jealousy comes with so much weight, bitterness, quarrels, and ugliness. Trade it for peace, submission, mercy, good fruit, and sincerity. God offers eternal life, eternal peace, and eternal relationship. The enemy only offers temporary satisfaction for eternal damnation.