Comparison

We live in a day when we can take our ideas, creativity, talents, gifts and passions and utilize them easier than ever before. If we want to improve on something or learn something new all we have to do is look it up on Pintrest or Youtube. Not only do we have sources to improve our skills and make something new but we also have so many resources to share it with others.

We can get so excited about having the tools to create, or serve in a certain way and be so close to share what we are working on, and then we stop. We talk ourselves out of it. The enemy of creativity is comparison.

Comparison tells you that your art doesn’t look as good as the artist you follow on Pintrest.

Comparison tells you that the words you write will never be as good as your favorite author.

Comparison tells you that the picture you edited to post on social media doesn’t look as good as the person you follow.

Comparison can even effect you in a spiritual aspect. It can be so easy to look at someone else’s walk with the Lord and question our own. If we are not careful, we even let comparison effect our obedience to the Lord because our life doesn’t look like the person next to us.

I heard something recently along the lines of “we do things to impress people who aren’t even looking.” That hit me hard. You will never find lasting satisfaction in the eyes of others. You are not made to please other people.

Yet, we run ourselves ragged because we feel like we can’t measure up or make the mark. Insecurity springs from comparison. We strive to be this image of perfection we have created in our heads or to be a reflection of someone else.

Anxiety, frustration, and inadequacy all come from this mentality of striving to be our definition of perfect. We forget our purpose and lose sight of our identity in Christ.

You are not called to be a reflection of someone else,

or to strive to achieve your own means of perfection,

you are called to be is a reflection of Christ.

You are not called to be someone else. Your life is not supposed to look like the people around you. You cannot meet your own standard of perfection.

The standards of perfection that we set for ourselves are unrealistic and probably not even close to what it means to be Christlike.

Freedom comes when we realize we are not called to reflect someone else or to achieve perfection rather we are called to reflect Christ. The only person that we are to please is the Lord. In Galatians 1:10 it says, ” Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people?”

If we try to impress others we become trapped in constantly pleasing other people. As Christians we are called to only live for the approval for the Lord. The Lord loves and approves His children that seek to serve Him. Lasting approval comes only from Christ.

Our idenity in Christ is certain and unchanging. Psalm 139:13-15 says,

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place

We don’t have to feel the need to compare ourself to someone else because we have security in our identity in Christ. The Lord has intimately created you with a special purpose that only you can fill to glorify Him. Strive to make being a reflection of Him your focus instead of reflecting other people. Even I need to remind myself this!