The Theft of Comparison
How comparison steals our heavenly identity and how to get it back.
I’m not as pretty.
I’m not as far along.
I’m not as gifted.
These voices are not unfamiliar to any of us. They tell us we are lacking, less than, and losing. Whether you are fourteen, trying to find your identity during those tumultuous years of adolescence, or forty, questioning your value as you sit across from your closest friends at Bible study, our addiction to ranking our worthiness is potent.
We think comparison will help us feel better. We think it will reveal where we need to improve. We use it as a benchmark of our effectiveness. Yet comparison, at its core, silences the creator's voice and robs Him of His purposes through you.
He has created us for plans both known and ones we have yet to experience. He has knit together direct reflections of the very best of His character in each of us. He is using the events of our lives in painfully obvious and indescribably eternal ways.
Comparison is heavenly identity theft.
Instead of living in the beauty of how we were created, we try to recreate someone else's image. Instead of living the story He is writing in our life, we try to experience someone else's storyline. Instead of using the gifts we’ve been given, we labor to receive the blessing of someone else's gift.
All the while missing out on the purposes, plans, and provisions God had intended for us.
The Lord has things in store for YOU that are greater than you could ask or imagine. He has knit within YOU beauty this world has not yet experienced. He has given YOU gifts that will impact your community and heaven for eternity.
Do you struggle with the desire to compare yourself with those around you?
Let that be a signal to run to the Father and allow him to flood your heart with the truth that you are indescribably loved, purposefully created, and powerfully gifted.