Jealousy And The Scroll - REPLAY

Jealousy doesn’t always show up as loud anger. Sometimes it’s a quiet, constant itch that keeps you scrolling, judging, and comparing your real life to someone else’s highlight reel. I’m Jessi Morgan, a home decor blogger who’s sharing more of my personal life and my love for the Lord, and I’m getting very real about a season when I followed an Instagram influencer I couldn’t stand and couldn’t stop watching. That mix of envy, resentment, and “why does she get that?” started to spill into how I saw my own life, and it was doing damage to my heart.

We also open the Bible to Numbers 12, where Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses, and God makes it clear that jealousy and criticism are not harmless. From there, I challenge a modern habit that sneaks into our anxious moments: treating social media, celebrities, or Google like the place to find direction. When my daughter was in the hospital, my husband and I made a commitment not to Google complications, and I share why prayer and wise counsel anchored us when search results could not.

If you’re tired of feeling not good enough after you scroll, or you’ve been looking for answers in all the wrong places, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more hearts can find encouragement and truth.

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Transcript

Welcome And Devotional Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You are listening to Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Heart Podcast, episode 10. This week's devotional is called Jealousy, Influencers, and What Are You Googling? Let's do this. Hey there, my name is Jesse Morgan and I am a home decor blogger who wanted to share more of my personal life nowadays, starting with my love for the Lord. The Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Heart Podcast is a weekly Christian devotional that was laid on my heart to do back in 2023. After my daughter was born four months early. Yes, four months early. This podcast is here to inspire, support, and cherish how amazing God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can be for any believer out there by sharing experiences from my personal life and intertwining it with Scripture. Hope you have five to ten minutes out of your week to enjoy this. Let's do this.

Confessing Jealousy Toward An Influencer

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Jealousy or coveting? Ever experienced it? I have for sure. Both ways. I experienced it where people were jealous of me and also how I was jealous of them. It's not pretty. I'm gonna put myself out here today and talk about myself being jealous or coveting what someone else had. I didn't want to be cliche and discuss the jealousy I have dealt with from others. So let's be real and discuss an ugly side of me that I wasn't proud of for a bit. There's this influencer I used to follow on IG from 2021 to October 2023. And honestly, I was a hater. She showed off her body and wealth like crazy and had such a strong opinion on her life choices. But she did it in a way that I just started that just started to rub me the wrong way, but I couldn't stop following either. I wanted her lifestyle, honestly, and I know that IG isn't what it always seems, but I still longed for her life at times. She took extravagant trips to Dubai, Turkey, and you name it, and she flaunted her home, her outfits, and her best friends constantly. The one thing that annoyed me the most was the fact that she was a mom of two. She had a 14-year-old and a two-year-old, single mom. And it just felt like she had a girls' night every other weekend. She was partying hard and dressing to the nine. And I'm over here in 2022, not pregnant yet, but I didn't go out like that either. I started to secretly mom shame her, and I didn't even know this woman. Honestly, it just annoyed me because her reality wasn't realistic to me, and it made me resent her. It made me resent my life a little bit. It started to make me compare my life to hers. I went nuts a bit. I was hating on her clothes, complaining about her home, hating on her parenting, hating on her attitude, and more. Um, I don't even know her. How can I judge someone so harshly like that? So after my daughter was born last year, premature, it just put so much into perspective for me. And I started weeding out the bad influences and worldly things that can deter you or that can detour you from your priorities and the Lord. Now, this influencer owed me nothing and did nothing malicious to me. But for my spiritual health, I unfollowed her. And the past nine months have been great. I'm not comparing myself, not resenting my life, or being judgmental towards someone else. I now focus on myself, my family through the Lord. It's the best thing I've ever done. Now,

Numbers 12 And Jealousy’s Consequences

SPEAKER_00 3:55

as we go into the Bible, do you remember this story about Moses? Look at Numbers 12. I'll read the first five verses to get context, and then jump to verse 8 and 9 to finish this out, and then we'll go from there. So Numbers 12, 1 through 5. Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Kushite wife, for he had married a Kushite. Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? They asked. And the Lord heard this. Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you. So the three of them went out. So now let's jump down to verse eight. And it says, The Lord basically said to Miriam and Aaron, Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them. So basically, to put this all into context, I always think about the jealousy scenario here within this passage with Moses and his siblings, Miriam and Aaron. Remember, Miriam and Aaron were Moses' siblings. So after, you know, exiting Egypt, after Moses parting the Red Sea, after receiving the Ten Commandments, and then some, Moses still showed humility the entire time. What a leader, right? So how in the world could his own siblings criticize their brother's leadership as well as speak poorly of his wife? Moses' wife was a Kushite. To put it in more simple terms, she was African descent and possibly darker skin toned. That angered God so much that he gave Miriam leprosy for seven days. So I guess she faced the consequences of her jealousy, as well as Aaron. You see how jealousy is so ugly. It itches, it festers, it's grueling to deal with altogether. God doesn't take jealousy lightly. When you are wanting what someone else has, that's a slap in the face to him. God is providing for you every day, all day, and you are focused on what someone else has.

Let God Be Your Search Engine

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Why are you seeking answers from celebrities, influencers? Why are you hating on someone else and their choices? Why aren't you content with what you have? Be careful with the world today. Social media, search engines are not the places for answers or guidance in life. God and Jesus Christ is your spiritual media or your search engine. Plus, God will never make you feel like you're not good enough. Because of course you are. Jesus gave his life for you to live yours eternally with him one day. When my daughter was in the hospital, my husband and I vowed never to Google any of her complications. We just conversed with her medical team and we prayed to God for guidance if we felt something wasn't right. I refused to Google anything because it was up, because if it was up to Google, my daughter would not be here today. She wouldn't be alive. Google never gave her a chance to live. God did. He led us and loved us through the process, not an influencer on IG. Let God lead you and influence you to do his good work. Develop a strong relationship and encourage others. Don't hurt others. Don't be jealous of others. Encourage. Don't let coveting of what someone else has detour your heart. Don't let an influencer, political leader, or celebrity be your number one resource for direction or unconscious answers. Let God be your number one resource to find answers, not Google. Let's

Prayer And Final Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 7:51

pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this devotional today. I thank you for everybody listening. Father, we know that jealousy is a really tough thing that so many people go through. It's a sin that so many people experience, Lord. And we just pray that people come from the other, come out the other way, realizing and being grateful for what they have. And realizing that this world, social media, influencers, celebrities, they are not the answer. They are not what we should be looking at. They are not the focus. They are not the priority. They are not the goal. The goal is to have a relationship with you. The goal is to represent you, Lord, and to be content with what we have because we have that relationship with you. So, Lord, we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. So that concludes this podcast for the week. I pray that these devotions really help you have a focus and help you lean into God even more each and every day. If you found value in this episode, share it with a friend, leave a comment, or review on the app you're using right now to do so. For more information or to get in contact with me, check out the show notes or jessymorganhome.com. Till next time, Jessimorgan praying off.