Comparing

I am loving the online sermons at Lifechurch.tv! This week, the lesson was on "I Quit Comparing".

Comparison takes us down the wrong path and keeps our focus on the wrong thing. There are 4 main things that we tend to compare:

1. Possessions - car, house, clothes, etc.
2. Appearance - for women it might be hair, for men it might be their physique
3. Performance - job, moms comparing themselves to other moms
4. Circumstances - why don't I have children, why am I not married, maybe wondering why you aren't in life where you thought you would be

Why does God hate it when we compare?

1. Comparison is the death of contentment. 2 Corinthians 10:12 says, "We do not DARE classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves, they are not wise." Why such strong language in that verse, saying we don't dare? Because comparing robs us of our meaning and it kills our joy. Being successful is about being who GOD wants you to be and not who you wish you were. We build mirages of who we think we should be and that's not who we are supposed to be.

2. Comparison makes us prideful. Luke 18:11-12 says, "The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get." We think just like that. We compare and judge others. For example, we judge the mom whose kid is throwing a tantrum, thinking we can do so much better, but we don't even have kids. Or what about someone who judges someone who smokes, but then they down a greasy hamburger and soda?! We elevate ourselves when we do this. C.S. Lewis said, "We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking, there would be nothing to be proud about."

3. Comparison makes us resentful. We looked at the story in 1 Samuel 18:6-9, where even though David was very loyal to Saul, David had killed more in battle than him and Saul became jealous. We resent God's goodness in others' lives and we ignore God's blessings in our own life! We can't be happy with our own blessings when we compare them with others.

So what do we do? How do we overcome comparing?

1. Know what you have. Philippians 4:11-13 says, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." We have to learn to be content.

2. Know who you are. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God's workmanship, created to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. In knowing who we are, we know who we don't have to be. We are God's children. "I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking." -George MacDonald-

We can be separated from God by comparing. We think we're good because we're better than that person over there. Or we think we aren't good enough to follow Him, like we're too far gone in sin. Jesus came to die for us and made a way to be redeemed. This is who we are. We are loved and we are forgiven.