I recently wrote the post “Stop Comparing Yourself With Others God Doesn’t’. In it I quoted;
1 Thessalonians 2:4 NLT For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. (emphasis mine).
I said in that post; While we may not set out to exalt ourselves when we compare ourselves to others, we certainly don’t do it to make ourselves feel inadequate or inferior. We most often compare ourselves to others out of our insecurity. We want to make ourselves feel better. We also compare because of our competitive or perfectionist nature. We want to be right, perfect, or just better than the other person.
I also said; Rely on God’s opinion rather than the opinion of others. Our own insecurity often causes us to compare ourselves with others, looking for a way to feel superior. But what if we relied on God’s opinion of us before we had a chance to listen to our own, or others’ opinions? Quietly thank God that He sees your heart and actions and He knows the real story. If someone is bragging about their own abilities, don’t start comparing their talents with yours. Instead, quietly say “This doesn’t matter, God. Help me to be content with Your evaluation of me over anything else.” Sometimes we have to tell ourselves what to think in order to keep our minds from going in the wrong direction.
We’re human so we are going to occasionally compare ourselves with somebody. In my post on comparison I said that we do it because we’re insecure and want to make ourselves feel better, and because of our competitive or protectionist nature. We want to be right, perfect, or just better than the other person. Comparison can also cause us to become angry, bitter, jealous, and resentful.
What’s The Answer To Resentful Comparison?
The answer to overcoming resentful comparison is complete trust in God. Brant Hansen says in his book Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better;
When your complete trust is in God you become unoffendable.
Choosing to be unoffendable means choosing to be humble. Not only that, the practice teaches humility. Once you’ve decided you can’t control other people; once you’ve reconciled yourself to the fact that the world, and its people, are broken; once you’ve realized your own moral failure before God; once you’ve abandoned the idea that your significance comes from anything other than God, you’re growing in humility, and that’s exactly where God wants us all.
It’s contrary to seemingly everything in our culture, but the more we divest ourselves of ourselves, the better our lives get. Jesus told us as much. He said if we’d give up our lives, for His sake, we’d find real life.
When we surrender our perceived “rights,” when we let go of our attempts to manipulate, we find — surprise! — joy.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 NLT For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. (emphasis mine).
I said in that post; While we may not set out to exalt ourselves when we compare ourselves to others, we certainly don’t do it to make ourselves feel inadequate or inferior. We most often compare ourselves to others out of our insecurity. We want to make ourselves feel better. We also compare because of our competitive or perfectionist nature. We want to be right, perfect, or just better than the other person.
I also said; Rely on God’s opinion rather than the opinion of others. Our own insecurity often causes us to compare ourselves with others, looking for a way to feel superior. But what if we relied on God’s opinion of us before we had a chance to listen to our own, or others’ opinions? Quietly thank God that He sees your heart and actions and He knows the real story. If someone is bragging about their own abilities, don’t start comparing their talents with yours. Instead, quietly say “This doesn’t matter, God. Help me to be content with Your evaluation of me over anything else.” Sometimes we have to tell ourselves what to think in order to keep our minds from going in the wrong direction.
We’re human so we are going to occasionally compare ourselves with somebody. In my post on comparison I said that we do it because we’re insecure and want to make ourselves feel better, and because of our competitive or protectionist nature. We want to be right, perfect, or just better than the other person. Comparison can also cause us to become angry, bitter, jealous, and resentful.
What’s The Answer To Resentful Comparison?
The answer to overcoming resentful comparison is complete trust in God. Brant Hansen says in his book Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better;
When your complete trust is in God you become unoffendable.
Choosing to be unoffendable means choosing to be humble. Not only that, the practice teaches humility. Once you’ve decided you can’t control other people; once you’ve reconciled yourself to the fact that the world, and its people, are broken; once you’ve realized your own moral failure before God; once you’ve abandoned the idea that your significance comes from anything other than God, you’re growing in humility, and that’s exactly where God wants us all.
It’s contrary to seemingly everything in our culture, but the more we divest ourselves of ourselves, the better our lives get. Jesus told us as much. He said if we’d give up our lives, for His sake, we’d find real life.
When we surrender our perceived “rights,” when we let go of our attempts to manipulate, we find — surprise! — joy.
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