Galatians 6:4-5

“Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct”

The temptation to compare in our culture is everywhere and because it is so strong we need to look at ways to combating comparison. The following are two practical ways that have helped me begin to live life differently and let go of the deadly and destructive vice of comparison.

1. Celebrate who God created you to be

Learn to like yourself. When you downgrade yourself, not only will you not see the masterpiece God has made you to be, but you will be critical of His creation. Ephesians 2:10 reminds us, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” You have great value. You are rare and one-of-a-kind. Got didn’t create you for you to try to be somebody else. Begin to focus on the unique strengths and potential He has deposited in you. Because what you focus on you magnify. Are you flaw focus or Father focused? Do you see the problems or the potential? When you become happy with yourself and your qualities you can then begin to also celebrate the gifts of others. If you don’t you will spend your energy not only trying to be somebody else but also trying to change everyone around you. When we see our spouse and say I am going to change them, what you are really saying is that when God made them, He messed up but don’t worry I can fix God’s mistakes! God called us to live the abundant life not an arrogant one. This world is continually sending the message that we are not enough, smart enough, good looking enough, loveable enough unless we buy this or buy into that. As a result, many have developed a critical self-spirit that not only affects but is also infecting others. If we are honest, we all have our own life or death battles. Every day from the moment we wake up, we engage with the struggles of our mind, society, and relationships. Life is full of fears, doubts and regrets that if we don’t deal with will rob us of life as they seek to control and steal our soul. We have to begin each day acknowledging our surroundings, focusing our thoughts, journeying inward to recognize what fears, what doubts, what “demons” are lurking beneath the surface.  1 Peter 5:7 tells us to, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” But it’s hard to cast what you are not aware of! It takes focus, discipline, and an awareness of ourselves to engage fully in the world around us. If we focus on the negatives, if we let fear drive our actions, then our reality is one of suffering and resentment. We become stuck on autopilot. We go through the motions instead of really living. We seek distractions so we never have to be alone with ourselves. An unfocused mind is fear’s greatest ally.

2. Focus on the Messiah instead of the media. 

What if we meditated on God’s Beauty and His Word instead of on the world? God created human beings to crave, to wonder, and to be fascinated by beauty. Psalm 27:4 reminds us to seek this beauty, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple”. Scripture calls us to fast for the purpose of focusing on God. When it comes to fasting, we often think of food but what is we fasted from social media? How much time do you spend on social media? What if that time was spent focused on Jesus instead of the junk? The beauty of focusing on Jesus instead of the junk is it frees us from the comparison trap. So, let me encourage you to create a new habit of seeking God first and take a break from social media. I guarantee it won’t be easy because as you will find many of us are addicted to social media. But remember addiction always leads to affliction. We need to learn to refocus and shift our focus from comparisons to Christ. 

Galatians 6:4-5

“Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct”

Are you struggling to find contentment in a culture of comparison?  Is your life not measuring up to “Pinterest-worthy” living?  If you can relate, you are not alone! Millions of people struggle with this destructive temptation to compare. But constantly comparing yourself to others steals your joy and can hinder you from finding God’s design for your life.  In the last few years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Christians experiencing depression and anxiety due to their constant checking of Facebook and other social-networking media. The constant bombardment of “happy” pictures, status updates, and videos has given us a new word in the English vocabulary, FOMO, the fear of missing out. The Oxford English Dictionary describes this as “Anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.” Viewing the lives others are living is often translated into an inadequacy in our own lives. Or worse, we begin to wish we could be somewhere else or even more deadly be someone else. It causes us to live in fear instead of freedom. So much time is wasted fearing what we are missing that we don’t see the blessings that exist right in front of us. We trade real life for a fantasy. I will never forget a speaker at a conference showing us a beautiful picture of his family taken on their vacation. It looked like the family all of us would want but while a picture can paint a thousand words it also often leaves some out. He went on to share the truth behind the picture that his family were fighting with each other before the picture was taken and after. They had just stopped to posed long enough to give the impression of a fun-loving family. Sometimes what we see and long for is a fake! We can spend so much time converting other peoples lives that we stop living ours. Connected to this FOMO affliction is “the new OCD” Obsessive Comparative Disorder. This is the compulsion to constantly compare ourselves with others, producing unwanted thoughts and feelings that drive us to depression, consumption, anxiety, and all-around joyous discontent. Comparing ourselves to others is not a new phenomenon; it has been a part of man’s downfall since the beginning of time. It’s what led Eve to take the forbidden fruit and their children to fight and the first murder. It’s also what led the Israelites to the disastrous desire to be like other nations and have kings, 1 Samuel 8:4-7 “So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have. ⁶ But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”Comparison causes us to take our eyes of Christ and put them on others. It causes us to forget who we are because we forget whose we are. In contrast, Scripture urges us to be content, 1 Timothy 6:6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” Comparison moves us from contentment to coveting and ultimately disappointment and despondency. What about you, are you caught in the comparison trap? Do you find yourself constantly comparing, physical appearance, jobs, status, houses, vehicles, families, possessions? The list of things we can compare is not only endless its exhausting. In 2 Corinthians 10:12 Paul called comparing foolish, “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” After all we called to become more like Christ not others. So what if we focused our attention and energy more on Christ and less on comparing!