Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
“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.”
Galatians 6:4
God has an individual plan for each and every one of us, and it’s bigger than we can possibly imagine. The problem is, the devil wants us to be jealous of other people’s God-given plans. He wants you to compare your gifts, your talents, and your abilities to everyone else’s. God, on the other hand, doesn’t want you to compare yourself to anyone. He made you to be you!
One of the enemy’s main objectives is to try to get you to strive to be exactly like other people because he knows you’ll never be able to achieve this feat! His goal is to force you into frustration and to steal your joy by attempting to get you focused on impossible tasks–stuff that God doesn’t even expect you to do!
He wants us sidetracked, and so often we give this moron his way. Instead of us paying close attention to the wonderful plans God has for each of us individually, we unknowingly allow the devil and his idiots to place the idea of jealousy into our minds. Spiritually, he will say things like, “You want what they have. You want to know what they know. You want to look how they look. You want to do what they do.”
SO BE CAREFUL! Jealousy, when not noticed or overlooked, will knock you off the path of your own God-given purpose! Let me be clear about something first: God’s will for your life is for you to believe in Jesus as your Savior (see John 3:16, 6:29). Once you do this, you inherit all of the raw materials you need to build up an awesome life in Christ! Not to be confused with God’s will, our individual purposes can be anything which is built on top of Christ in us combined with our individual likes, talents, skills, preferences, gifts, and abilities. Your purpose will thrive when you are simply being yourself.
God doesn’t expect you to do anything you weren’t made to do, so you shouldn’t expect yourself to do stuff you weren’t made to do either. Therefore, when you find yourself comparing yourself to others–stop–pause, pray, proceed. Comparison is a big red flag the Holy Spirit throws up, so pay attention.
The best thing you can do at that point is begin to thank God for who you are! Thank Him for who He has made you to be! By doing this you are planting seeds of confidence in yourself, while appreciating God’s gifts in others. Remember: Christians are not in competition with each other. The devil sure wants us to think we are, but God does not. Instead, we are all individual parts of One Body! (See 1 Corinthians 12:12). Your arm doesn’t attack your eye, and your leg doesn’t attack your nose–a body appreciates itself, takes care of itself, and works together.
This is why if we are not constantly thanking God for who He has made us to be as individuals, eventually we will secretly and subconsciously resent the people whom the flesh and our enemy wants us to be like. A foot will never be a hand! So that foot should focus on running and jumping rather than grabbing or carrying! That foot should be proud to get that hand in the position to where it can grab and carry! We work best together! The gospel is spread in greater ways together!
So we gotta stand up against incorrect mindsets! We gotta tell the enemy, “Nope! I’m not going there! I like who God has made me to be. I like who God has made them to be. He made us both for a great purpose and He loves us the same! I appreciate what they do, and I’m proud of what I do. We both have different assignments from God, and we are on the same team!”
This is where your confidence in who you are begins, which is understanding just how special you are to your Creator, and just how special everyone else is to Him as well. God didn’t have to make us–but He did! The odds of us even being here are uncountable! And you, my friend, you are a one of a kind…a cherished rarity…if I could just get you to realize that, you’d see what I mean! You were not just randomly thrown into the mix of humanity–YOU WERE PLANNED BY GOD HIMSELF!
So today, my friends, know this: Be yourself! Stop trying to be like other people, and be you! Yes, it’s good to have role models and mentors but at the end of the day God has a special plan and a special purpose individually picked out for you in Christ. You are an integral part of His Body! Nobody else can do what you do quite like you, so be you, you, you, you, YOOOOOOOOOOU! My goodness, we need you to be you! Did I say be you?
A prayer for you: Heavenly Father I want to thank you for making me, me. For years, I didn’t like myself, and I constantly compared myself to others. But you’ve taught me just how special I really am in Christ. After being beat down for years, verbally, I began to believe the lies of people who told me there wasn’t anything special about me. Thank you for teaching me the truth! Right now, I lift up all who are reading this, directly to you. For those who may be trying to be someone other than themselves, help them. Begin to reveal in their hearts that you WANTED them to be exactly like they are in Christ! Make sure they know that they are NO surprise to you! Teach them how NEEDED they are to COMPLETE the Body of Christ! In His name I pray, amen.
This devotional is from 60 Days for Jesus, Volume 1. Get your copy here!