Comparison – that is what I want to talk about today. Do you find that you compare yourself to others? I do this more than I would care to admit. I really can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t do this. I remember in college, participating in several pageants and comparing myself to the other girls; when I started my career I found myself comparing myself to other women who I considered successful. Why? Why did I and do I find myself comparing me to others? Maybe part of it is my competitive nature, but regardless of why, comparison to others does nothing but create insecurity and keeps me from pursuing the plan God has for me. God did not create me to be exactly like anyone else. God did not create me for a plan exactly like someone else’s. God did not create me to be a duplicate of anyone else. God created me in His image for a specific purpose. Ephesians 2:10 says. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand so that we could walk in them. God prepared my purpose beforehand. My purpose is different than anyone else’s and He has equipped me with talents and gifts that differ from anyone else. And the same is true for you, God created you for a unique purpose. He did not create you to mimic someone else’s life. He has gifted you and will equip you with everything you need to be successful towards accomplishing YOUR purpose. Jeremiah 29:11 says For I know the plans I have for you, “declares the Lord,” plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Comparison can also create envy of others. Why do they seem to have it all, why does their life seem so perfect? Why isn’t our house as nice as theirs, why do they get all this free time to spend with their family and have fun yet I have to work all of the time, why can’t our business be as successful as theirs; why, why, why? Envy is defined as “a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities or luck, desire to have a quality, possession, or other attribute belonging to someone else.” Scripture says we are to keep our eyes on Him, not others. Isaiah 26:3-4 says You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
So bottom line, I want my focus to be on Christ, not comparing myself to others, whether it be with possessions, business, ministry or anything else. I don’t have the same gifts and talents as the next person and that is okay because God created me for His specific purpose and is equipping me to complete it.
