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God has seriously renewed my heart and my joy and love for God has been overflowing!😁

But things aren't always completely smooth sailing - I felt jealousy creeping into my heart again recently which spurred me to find out what I could do about it. I struggled with it on my own in the past, but I have God now which I think makes all the difference.
I prayed, and He has answered - this is what He has replied me with and all glory to God! I do hope it helps you in some way :)

I made a video on my YouTube channel last night and uploaded it earlier today:


As I mentioned above, jealousy has been plaguing me again recently and I just wanted to know what I could do to be cured of it. I was on a bus ride home yesterday night and I decided to re-read the Parable of the Prodigal son, or Lost son. It’s a well-known parable and for good reason - there’s so much to interpret from it!

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

- Luke 15: 11-13

There was a man, who I interpret to be God - and He had 2 sons. The younger one asked for a share of the estate but traveled to a distant country and squandered his wealth in wild living. Realise that he didn’t go wild nearby - he had to be and wanted to be far from His Father when he was doing unlawful things - so he traveled to a distant country.

I think at some point in our life, we were the prodigal son. We may not have squandered money till the extent of the lost son but we are all sinners - we know this. But we have been saved by a loving Father who gave us His son Jesus Christ to take our place to make us righteous❤

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the country - and this resulted in the lost son having to feed pigs as a living. During this time, absolute rock bottom, he came to his senses.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate

- Luke 15:16-23

God’s Kingdom is a Kingdom of plenty, for plenty! And so, the lost son returns to his father - and his father, seeing his lost son from a distance, ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. The son apologises and the father tells his servants to basically celebrate, elaborately, the return of his lost son.

God is so good, loving, merciful and all these amazing things. A lot of us know that - it’s been preached a lot on and we can definitely infer God’s grace, love, and mercy through this parable.
But I think there’s so much more in this passage and God revealed that to me tonight.
Even though this parable could have ended here with a grand celebration of the return of a lost child of God, all wonderful and dandy, Jesus is such a great storyteller.

The parable continues with the older brother coming home and hearing music and dancing from inside the house. He then receives news that his younger brother has returned and they have killed the fattened calf to celebrate.

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

- Luke 15:25-27

And the Bible says this is how the older son reacted to the news of his younger brother's return:

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

- Luke 15:28-30

At this point, I had mixed emotions. I totally identified with the older son and his frustration. I wasn’t satisfied with just “being happy for the lost son who has been found”.
But it turns out, I had to empathise with the younger son’s pain of being lost.

Are you with me, am I making sense? I was focusing on the
joy of the son being FOUND. 
But I’m getting the message to be
empathic about the pain of being LOST.

Because the parable continues:

“ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

- Luke 15:31-32

While I was praying and reflecting on the word, this sentence came to me:
The cure to jealousy is empathy.

I needed a message confirmation so I re-read the parable and it didn’t explicitly say that the older brother knew what his younger brother went through - in his eyes, it seems like he ran away with his father's money and came back in a pitiful state but got warmly welcomed back. The older brother was only focusing on his younger brothers bad deeds.

I think this older brother wanted vengeance, he wanted to see his brother get punished and scolded - but that is not what our loving, forgiving and amazing God does. He is all these things and more and He’s is calling us to be merciful, like Him.

I was wondering and kind of speaking to God: If it’s not really in the Parable, can I really assume that empathy is the cure to jealousy?

I then felt Him reply me with an analogy in the form of a story.
He illustrated a scenario. I have a younger sister, making this parable and analogy/vision very applicable. So the vision/story goes like this:
My sister has just taken some food I’ve prepared for school - this left me angry and frustrated. She has her share, why take mine?
But then there was a plot twist - my sister took my food because hers was taken away from her by bullies in school. She was going hungry for days.
When this turn of events was revealed to me, my heart changed pretty much instantly. Poor sister! I became more than willing to share or even give her what I had. This change in heart was birthed from love, and mainly empathy.

God was confirming my message within a message.

There was a period in my life when jealousy was overwhelming me and pretty much engulfed my existence - I Googled things like ‘How to not be jealous’. They gave tips like ‘figure out the underlying cause’, ‘separate past from present’, ‘encourage good use of imagination’ etc.
Personally, these tips didn't do much for me because the 'remedy' was temporary and it didn't change my heart.

It turns out the true cure was in the Bible all along, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!

From this whole Bible reflection, I've really learned so much :')  It's not enough to just read and reflect - I need to apply it to my life too. So the next time I feel jealous of someone, I'm going to put myself in his/her shoes and empathise with his/her circumstances. Once I am able to be empathic about his/her struggles and pain, I'm pretty sure the jealousy will dissipate :)

It's important and graceful to be happy for someone else's joy of being found, but should jealousy come knocking on the door - you have empathy to back you up :)

Plus,

That's all for this blog post, God bless☺