“She is so beautiful; why can’t I look like her?”
“She’s got it all together; why don’t I?”
“Why is my life so hard following Jesus when sinners seem to have it made?”
Comparison is the destructive practice of self-focus leading to frustration, sadness, envy, jealousy, resentment, and self-devaluing. It keeps us focused on trying to change or fix ourselves. Comparing yourself to others disrespects the personal workmanship of God in our mother’s wombs. It distracts us from loving and serving Jesus and it leads to the sin of pride.
Good and Bad Comparisons
It is good to compare products, services, and reviews. They are necessary to ensure retailers represent their products correctly and that we are not being scammed. However, nonliving things are not the same as people who God uniquely creates.
Five Dangers of a Comparison Mindset
1.) Comparing robs us of enjoying and celebrating the uniqueness, gifts, and talents of the variety of God’s creations. Instead of enjoying and being blessed by a talented singer, we may spend the time being envious, jealous, and making a list of our faults. We allow the enemy to rob us of the joy right in front of us. In this negative mindset, is Jesus smiling or the devil?
2.) Comparison prevents us from seeing others with respect, equality, compassion, and empathy. No one knows what another person is going through in this day or chapter of their life. What you see may not even come close to the challenges, pain, or struggles they face in their minds, emotions, finances, or relationships. When you’re in a comparison mindset, you are in a destructive evaluation mode that emits negativity, judgment, and disrespect. Jesus commands his disciples to “love one another AS he loves us.” (John 15:2)
3.) Comparison overshadows the beauty of our uniqueness and gifts. “God knitted each one of us in our mother’s womb.” (Psa. 139:13-16) He chose our physical attributes, personalities, and talents. “Each of us has our own gifts from God.” (1 Cor. 7:7) He chose everything about us for His reason and purpose in His grand plan. God knew the strengths we would need to propel us forward to seek Him and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He also knew the weaknesses that would lead us to work with Jesus and overcome our challenges. When we focus on knowing that we are God’s children and Christ’s disciples, we can develop our gifts and talents to thrive in our God-created uniqueness. Focus on serving God in your uniqueness and stop comparing yourself to others.
4.) Comparing creates the illusion that there is something wrong with us or missing in us. Comparing apples to apples is a favorite term used by retailers. But we are not things or produce. God handcrafted us, and God does not make mistakes. When you compare yourself to others, the enemy can deceive you into believing that your uniqueness means something is missing or wrong. If you believe there is something wrong with you or missing, you must believe God made a mistake. You either believe God is perfect and He can’t make a mistake, or you believe He makes mistakes. You can’t have it both ways in faith. When you choose to believe God is perfect, you have the freedom to live in who He created you to be in Christ. You can live as God’s masterpiece!
5.) Comparing ourselves to others prevents us from fulfilling our purpose and mission designed by God. According to the world, when you compare yourself to others, you’re focused on your performance, position, value, or other worldly self-focused forms of measurement. You can believe that you are not doing or being enough for God unless you are doing something big. Comparison keeps you blind to the unified purpose of all God’s children, to love, honor, serve, and preach Christ’s saving gospel to the world. We can also miss the specific missions God created for us in our home, community, work, church, and the world. Because we are all the body of Christ, each part is necessary and needed to work as Christ’s body. Our differences are what make each one of us a unique cell in the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:12-27) . As Christ’s disciples, “our life is not our own. We are the temple of Christ.” (1 Cor. 6:19) Our life is not all about us! To compare ourselves to another unique individual is a temptation by the enemy to keep us from focusing on Christ and fulfilling our God-designed missions in His grand plan.
Choose to Follow Jesus and Stop Comparing
Jesus tells us, “We can’t serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” (Matt. 6:24) We can either be self-focused or Christ-centered, but not both. Christ’s disciples have pledged their lives to follow the commands, ways, and example of Jesus Christ.
As Christ’s disciples, we believe God handcrafted each of us to love, serve, and fulfill His missions. Now we must learn to thrive in our uniqueness and discover our gifts, talents, and skills. As we mature in who we are in Christ, we will not fall into the dangers of comparing ourselves to others.
Your life and light in this dark world are as unique as a star in the sky. Shine bright and let the world experience Jesus through his unique love in you and be free from the temptation to compare!
“Let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.” (Rom. 12:6, MSG)
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