Comparisons

 Comparisons…

as a junior-higher, I was always comparing myself to others and, in my opinion, came up lacking…I was taller, more stout, bad hair, ugly, clothes weren’t the same, etc, etc, etc…it continued into high school with even more comparisons...comparisons lead to discouraging thoughts, discouraging attitudes and downheartedness…we can never be like someone else…we can never be as good as someone else and on down the line…

 

The point is that we aren’t someone else…we are exactly the person God made us…our hair, body shape, eyes, etc were formed specifically to His direction…

 “For you created my inmost being;you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;your works are wonderful,I know that full well. 

My frame was not hidden from youwhen I was made in the secret place,when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Ps.139.13-16

 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. 

We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you.

2Cor.10.12-13

 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Exod.20.17

As I read Ezra 3, there were those, the older ones, who were discouraged because the new Temple wasn’t like the old, not as opulent, not as big, not as—-, etc and they wept aloud… while others were joyful to be building the temple for worship again after exile, after returning to their land….

(An aside, we older ones have to watch our attitudes so much, “ the phases” “we didn’t do it like that” , “tradition dictates”, “that’s not the way we did it”, I think you get the drift…)

“Our world is always changing, and once-significant accomplishments decay and disappear.Seek to serve God wholeheartedly. Then you won’t need to compare your work with anyone else’s .” Bible Study notes…

Be encouraged that God knows exactly what he is doing…it may not be the same, but He is the same yesterday, to day and tomorrow…

Thank YOU…

Psalm 139…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgvIssCKkV4&list=RDAgvIssCKkV4&start_radio=1