Stop Comparing Yourself with Others!

But they…comparing themselves…are not wise.”                 2Co 10:12

Are you so busy analyzing your vices that you don’t have time to appreciate your virtues? Or so caught up in scrutinizing others that you don’t value what God has given you? God never intended you to compare yourself with anybody else. “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original” (Gal5:25-26 TM). By making comparisons, you’re implying that God made a mistake in making you as you are. Furthermore, you’re allowing others to define your worth, and giving them control over your self-esteem. That’s too much power to give anybody! “Since we find ourselves fashioned…excellently…and marvelously…let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be” (Ro 12:5-6 TM). Build on your God-given talents and stop coveting what others have. God made you what He wanted you to be, redeemed you and called you to fulfill His plan for your life. Until you stop comparing yourself to others, you’ll never be able to give birth to the gifts He’s placed within you. So thank Him for making you who you are, and believe that He’s transforming you day by day into the person He wants you to become.

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John Owen: From War To Immutable Habits

The Old Guys

The love wherewith we now adhere to God, and by which we act the obedience of faith towards the saints, faileth not; it ends not when glory comes on, but is a part of it, 1 Cor. 13:8. It is true, some gifts shall be done away, as useless in a state of perfection and glory, as the apostle there discourseth; and some graces shall cease, as to some especial acts and peculiar exercise, as faith and hope, so far as they respect things unseen and future;—but all those graces whereby holiness is constituted, and wherein it doth consist, for the substance of them, as they contain the image of God, as by them we are united and do adhere unto God in Christ, shall in their present nature, improved into perfection, abide for ever. In our knowledge of them, therefore, have we our principal insight into our eternal condition…

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