In my world I am learning that comparing myself to other people will be the death of my Christian experience. A few years ago I felt like life was passing me by, everyone was moving and advancing past me, and that everyone was experiencing things that I was supposed to be realizing as well. I looked at people's seeming lifestyle, what I saw as their accomplishments, and what they had and concluded how well they must be doing and how blessed they must be. I compared what I was feeling and what was going on in my life and said: Wow, why is what happening to them, NOT happening to me?"
I would have possibly spent years feeling this way if not for a revelation that God gave me which was: "You know Noah, you could be jealous of a figment of your imagination." What do you mean Lord, I thought?!?!?!? God began to explain to me that what you see in the life of other people is oftentimes not reality. As all of us know, we often love to promote an image of ourselves that is not altogether accurate. We enjoy having people think we have more money than we honestly do or having people believe that we live a life of ease and comfort. Many times what we will even buy for ourselves (clothes, shoes, cars, electronics, etc.) we buy them because of how other people will perceive us. WOW, they have that? Man, look at what they are driving! They stay looking stylish! Yet when we get home out of the company of the human eye, we are miserable because while we are living are lives to please other people, we are often miserable.
I am learning in my world that comparing myself to people will be the death of my Christian experience because when I compare myself to other people, I can always lie to myself thinking that I am better or worse than someone. However when I compare myself to Jesus, I ALWAYS come up short. Coming up short to Jesus is a great feeling though, because Jesus promised that he would fill every shortcoming of my life through the power of His Spirit!!!!
So listen, stop doing it!! Stop comparing!!! It hasn't been beneficial to you, and you would have to admit that it has been silently draining you! Stop living for the expectations of others and live to please one...Jesus! After all pleasing Jesus is much more worth it because you know that Jesus loves you with flaws and all! We try and impress people who we don't know or don't even like us. So in fact we could be going through a world of trouble trying to impress people that actually don't care or even take notice about what we are doing.
Thats my world....
