Joyce Meyer - Jealousy - Part 1 (02/15/2026)
Joyce Meyer tackles jealousy head-on, showing how it springs from insecurity and keeps us from rejoicing when others are blessed. Through stories like Rachel and Leah, Noah’s rainbow versus Abraham’s circumcision, and her own struggles, she drives home that God often tests us by letting others get what we want—to see if we’re ready for ours. The cure is trusting God’s decisions, staying content, and purposely rejoicing with those who rejoice.
The Root of Jealousy: Insecurity
Father, I pray over this message today, that You would cause people to really understand how important this is. And that You would help us to eliminate this one problem out of our life with Your help and give us peace. In Jesus’ name, amen.
I want to talk to you today about jealousy. You know, at the root of jealousy is insecurity. Because if we weren’t insecure in some way, we wouldn’t feel like we have to have what somebody else has. Matter of fact, I think that God has given us such a large born-again heart that we should be very happy when other people are blessed. Matter of fact, the Bible says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” And one wonderful thing about being in relationship with Jesus is you do not have to compare yourself with anybody else, and you don’t have to compare what you have with what anybody else has.
No More Comparing in Christ
You know, Jesus broke down the dividing walls—and He was talking about the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles. But He also said there is no more male or female, slave nor free, but we’re all one in Christ. And really a wealthy person should be comfortable with a poor person, and a poor person should be comfortable with a wealthy person. And when someone that you know gets blessed, you should always rejoice with them.
I have friends who really rejoice with me when something of a blessing happens in my life. But then you have other friends that you can tell aren’t quite as happy for you as you’d like them to be. And I know one girl that I used to spend quite a bit of time with—she’s kind of not in my life now—but when I would get blessed, she would say, “Well, I’ll be glad when God does something like that for me.” Well, you know, that’s not a very nice thing to say to somebody. We should rejoice when other people rejoice.
Jealousy in Families
And there’s a lot of jealousy sometimes in families between siblings. And I think that jealousy is one of those what I call acceptable sins. In other words, we’ve kind of accepted certain things as being, well, not so bad. You know, somebody brings it up—yes, of course we know we shouldn’t do it. But we do it and just let it slide and don’t think too much about it. So today we’re going to highlight jealousy. And if you have any in your heart toward anybody, I hope today you’ll see how foolish it is.
My husband got a word from God one time when I was preaching on this, and he said, “Until you can be happy for the person who gets what you want, you’ll never get yours.” Think about that. Until you can be happy for the person who gets what you want, you’ll never get yours. And sometimes I believe on purpose God makes sure that somebody comes across your path that has what you want—just to see how you’ll react, to see if you’re ready for yours or not.
Rachel and Leah: A Classic Case
So I have a lot of cool things to share with you today. First of all, you know we had Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—Jacob being one of the sons of Isaac. And Laban, who was his uncle. In Genesis 29:13-18 it says, “When Laban heard of the arrival of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced and kissed him and brought him to his house. And Jacob told Laban all these things. Then Laban said to him, ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh.’ And Jacob stayed with him a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Now just because you’re my relative, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me, what would you like your wages to be?’ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leah’s eyes were weak and dull looking, but Rachel was beautiful and attractive.”
I think that’s a nice way of saying Leah wasn’t very pretty. So right there you’ve got an open door for jealousy unless people are spiritual enough to keep it out of their life. So you have Rachel—who’s beautiful—and Leah—who’s not so good looking. “And Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will work for you for seven years for Rachel your youngest daughter.’”
“And when the Lord saw that Leah was despised, He made her able to bear children, but Rachel was barren.” I like to say that everybody gets something, but nobody gets everything. Leah wasn’t so pretty, but she could bear children. Rachel was beautiful—she could not bear children. And in those days bearing children was way, way, way more important than it is today.
The Wedding Deception
And so a whole bunch of stuff goes on, and Jacob works his seven years. And then it was time for their wedding. And they got Jacob drunk and put Leah in his tent with him. And of course he had intercourse with her that night—the Bible says. And he woke up the next morning, and here Leah’s in bed with him, and he’s like, “You cheated me.” Well, first of all I think Jacob forgot how he cheated his brother—stole his birthright. See, sometimes we’re just getting back what we gave to somebody else, but we forget that we did that.
And so then Laban said, “I’ll also let you have Rachel if you’ll work for me another seven years.” But he got to have Rachel while he was working those seven years. So now he had two wives—Leah and Rachel. And Leah just kept having baby after baby. And Rachel kept not having any children at all.
God Remembers Rachel
And then Rachel came… Leah came to a time where she was not bearing, so she gave her handmaiden to Jacob. And Rachel at one point gave her handmaiden to Jacob. And I noticed that these men whose women gave them other wives—they didn’t turn them down. And so I don’t think it’s too smart to give your husband a second wife. I’m not going to do that. But I would hope—even if I tried to—that he’d say, “No, lady—you’re crazy. I don’t want that.” But none of them did that. They just took it.
And then in Genesis 30:22 it says, “Then God remembered Rachel”—thank God that even when He forgets us for a while, He remembers us at some point—“and answered her pleading and made it possible for her to have children. And now for the first time she became pregnant and bore a son; and she said, ‘God has taken away my reproach, disgrace, and humiliation.’ And she called his name Joseph—which means may He add—and said, ‘May the Lord add to me another son.’”
And so we see a situation there where they could’ve really been unhappy and miserable. And I don’t know whether they were or they weren’t—but they were people. So I would imagine there was a little bit of “nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah” between them. So we want to try to keep jealousy out of our life. The Bible says, “Jealousy rots the bones.” Yuck!
Noah’s Rainbow vs. Abraham’s Circumcision
There was Noah in the Bible and there was Abraham—and they both made covenants with God. The Bible talks about how Noah built this ark—which took him somewhere between 50 and 75 years to build. And just imagine for 75 years having everybody laugh at you and think you’re nuts. And then they had the flood. And Noah lived his life—did whatever he did. And Abraham may have been alive for a few years of Noah’s life. It’s funny—all the experts—you try to find out what’s right—and one says he was alive, one says he wasn’t alive. Anyway, we know that they both lived—and at some point they both died—but God made a covenant with them.
And He used different things to seal the covenant. With Noah He gave him a rainbow. And I’m sure Noah was ready for a rainbow day after all he went through. How many of you would love to have a rainbow day? We probably all feel like we’re due for one, right?
But then you come to Abraham—who also had really gone through a lot of stuff: left his home—take everything you know—go away from everybody you know—to a land that I will show you. Well, I don’t know that I would’ve taken that deal. I would have said, “Show me—and then I’ll go.” But God often does that to us. You know—He… we start out toward something that we’re not sure of—but we feel that’s what God wants us to do.
Cutting Back the Flesh
And God made a covenant with Abraham—and He sealed it with a circumcision. Now which would you rather have? I doubt that Abraham was really too popular that day with the guys. I think it’s funny because you have two completely different scenarios here. And Abraham—there’s no evidence that he knew Noah—but I’m sure he had heard the story of Noah and the rainbow. And he knew it was true because we all still get to see rainbows. And surely Abraham saw a rainbow.
So I wonder what he thought when he thought about how Noah’s covenant was sealed with a rainbow—but God sealed his with a circumcision. Why circumcision? Because it meant the cutting back of the flesh. And God was telling him it was time to stop walking in the flesh and to begin to walk in the Spirit.
It was a good day for Noah when he got that rainbow. It wasn’t such a good day for Abraham when he got a circumcision. I’m sure maybe he thought, “This isn’t fair. Noah got a rainbow. I not only got a circumcision—now I have to circumcise every other man in the camp.”
How Do You Respond to Others’ Blessings?
Well, how do we respond when difficulty comes our way and other people we know are being blessed? And you don’t have to look so innocent. It’s tough sometimes when you just keep having trouble after trouble after trouble—and your friend comes and tells you how blessed they are. Sometimes you want to be happy for them—but you just can’t find it in you to do it.
I remember back before my ministry really ever got started—I was working at a church, and I did have a weekly women’s meeting there that ultimately was very blessed. But I was believing for such great things and big things. And I had quit my job to study for ministry. And every month we needed $40 to just be able to pay our bills. We had to have a miracle every month—every month.
And every month for six years God gave us a miracle. And sometimes—a lot of times—people would just walk up to us in church and say, “Here—God told me to give this to you.” And they’d give us some money. We got—one time we got a refund on our utility bill—and just… God would always do something. There was always something that He would do.
Preparation for Greater Things
But you know—I was tired of living hand to mouth and never—you know—I had to go for anything extra—I went to garage sales to get my kids clothes and shoes and believed God. And I didn’t understand why all that was happening. I didn’t understand it at all. But you know—needing to believe God for that miracle over that period of time and seeing Him do that—I believe is what gives us the faith for what we need now.
And a lot of times you’re going through a hard place and you don’t understand it. But I always say we live life forward and we understand it backward. How many things do you understand now about something you went through previously that you didn’t get at all then? Okay. And you know—the rest of you that are going through something—the same thing will probably happen to you.
We often want to be used by God—but we don’t want to be prepared to be used by God. And so you better be careful when you’re jealous of somebody else’s position—because you may not want to do what they did to get it.
There’s Always a Price
That’s why it’s very silly to be jealous of what somebody else has got. Because nobody gets anything without paying some kind of price. There’s a price to pay for what the Osteen family does. There’s a price to pay for what I do. I’ve been in ministry 50 years—and it’s been the greatest privilege of my life. I’ve taught the Word for 50 years. And I still love it—still love it—and plan to do it until I can’t move anymore.
But there’s been a lot of sacrifices. You get… people tell lies about you and put them online. And it seems like it’s always the people that are succeeding that the media picks on. Very often you’ll find Joel and I linked together in articles. There’s always about three of us. And it’s like we’re false teachers and we’re this—and we’re that—and we’re something else. And all we’re really trying to do is help people. And it’s somebody that’s jealous… All it is—is somebody that’s jealous of your success that wants to judge you for what you’re doing while they’re doing nothing. Amen?
And so instead of getting mad at them—we really just need to pray for them. Doesn’t do any good to get mad at somebody that’s an idiot? Well, really—I mean—when you sit and talk about or write about things you don’t know anything about—really you don’t know anything about. That’s a dangerous thing.
A Personal Test of Jealousy
So anyway—I was at this place where I was really needing a breakthrough. And my pastor came by one day—and he’d just come back from a big conference that he’d been invited to. And I would’ve given anything to have been invited anywhere at that time. And he was so excited. And oh—they’d given him a big offering—and he was excited about that. And four people came up to him and said they wanted to partner with his ministry. And he was excited about that.
And all of a sudden he looked at me and he said, “Is it okay that I’m telling you this?” I said, “Oh yes—yes—praise the Lord! Very happy for you.” I’m thinking, “Get out of here.” And so when he left—I threw myself across my daughter’s bed and I cried and cried and cried.
But I told God then—I said, “No matter how much—no matter how long—we need $40 a month to pay our bills—we are going to keep tithing and giving like You tell us to—whether You ever do anything or not.” And you know—from that day forward we began to prosper and come out of that. And so there might be a few tests that you’ll have to pass.
Fighting Jealousy with Generosity
Everybody like tests? We get them. Our faith gets tested. And a lot of times right before God’s going to promote you—you’ll get tested. Stay stable—stay solid. That’s what God’s looking for.
What about if your church has averaged 200 people forever—and a new guy comes to town and in four months he’s got 1,000 people? Can you be happy for him? Well, what we should do is buy him a new sound system and send it to him. There’s a way to fight back. There’s a way to fight back against jealousy and envy and greed. You just purposely do something generous—and it breaks the power of that wicked spirit.
What do you say about him when other people are talking bad about him? Do you say something good to kind of turn it around? Have you reached out in friendship to the guy? Now I know none of you may be in this particular situation—but I’m just making up stories that you can relate to.
See—sometimes we’re jealous and we don’t even realize we’re jealous—because we don’t even pay attention to what’s coming out of our mouth or our attitude toward that person.
Jealousy Eats at You
Wonder how many people are in here today who have a sibling that you’re jealous of? I would ask for a show of hands—but I don’t want to embarrass you. That very often happens in families. One was great at sports—and one didn’t even have coordination or balance. One had a great singing voice—and the other one couldn’t do anything. One was extremely smart—and the other one not so smart. One got married and happened to marry somebody that was really rich—and so now they’ve got everything—and you’re just living a normal life and you let jealousy set in.
You know—jealousy really doesn’t hurt the other people—but it eats at you. It eats at your life. It eats away at your joy. It eats away at your peace. And it’s just plain not pretty. It’s an ugly spirit.
Do you know the tenth commandment was, “Thou shalt not covet”? And that’s what we’re looking at. I heard one time that it would have been possible for people to keep the first nine. They could not murder—not steal—not lie. But nobody could keep the tenth one because it’s very challenging—without God—to not want what somebody else has—especially if you don’t have much.
Trust God’s Decisions
And I can imagine how hard it must have been for Rachel when she watched Leah have baby after baby. Just think for a minute how hard that must have been. Or maybe what Abraham did think when God sealed his covenant with the circumcision. I mean—that doesn’t sound like too much fun. I’d rather have a rainbow. How about you?
What about when your friend gets the promotion or the position that you wanted? What about when your friend loses 30 pounds and she says all she did was walk and drink water… and you’ve been starving and you lost 2 pounds?
I remember one of Dave’s sisters—she lost a lot of weight—and I said, “What have you been doing?” She said, “I just started walking a mile a day and drinking a lot of water.” And I thought…
We need to trust God’s decisions. We say that He’s in charge of our life. We say, “God—You take control.” And then when He does—we don’t always like what He does. God makes the decisions—and we should remain content. Ooh—it’s so hard to be content—isn’t it? All the time. But that’s what God wants. Contentment with godliness is great gain.