When Comparison Kills Confidence

Sharon JaynesEnough, Expectant Living, Identity in Christ, Take Hold of the Faith You Long For, Uncategorized 29 Comments

If there’s one thing I know it’s this: The measuring stick will get you stuck! Comparison is the devil’s tool that has stopped many of us gals from stepping into our God-given destinies…and it’s time to stop!

Comparison has been a problem since the beginning of time. Cain compared himself to Abel, and we know how that story turned out. But now the internet has taken comparison to pandemic proportions. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and the list goes on.

We are comparing what we know to be true about our insides to what others want us to know about their outsides.

Today, let’s look at Moses and see how comparison almost cost him his calling.

When we meet him in Exodus chapter 3, he’s an insecure, stuttering, recluse in the desert taking care of sheep. God met him at the burning bush and called him to lead the enslaved children of Israel out of Egypt.

Then Moses started arguing. “Who am I that I should go to the Pharaoh? What if they ask me your name? What if they don’t believe me? I’m not a good speaker! Please send someone else!

How do you think Moses came up with the idea that he was not a good speaker? I think it was by comparing himself to other people he thought were good speakers.

It’s the same way with you and me. Comparison opens the door for sabotaging lies to steal our confidence, stymie our courage, and stand in the way of our contentment.

Comparison puts up roadblocks along the path to fulfilling our God-given calling by setting an undefined standard of approval and acceptance.

We fear the NOT GOOD ENOUGH stamp will come crashing down with wet ink that mars all of life.

We fear that we are perhaps fatally flawed as confidence seeps through the holes of insecurity punctured and punctuated by comparison.

We compare our abilities to someone else’s and come to this conclusion: I could never do it like she does it. And you know what? You were never meant to! God doesn’t need two people just alike.

He has uniquely and precisely created you with specific gifts and talents to do exactly what He has called you to do. So, get good at being you!

David wrote: “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 (Ps. 139:13-14 NIV emphasis added).

Another translation says it this way: “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. (NLT)

David knew what full well? In these particular verses, he wasn’t praising God for the way He flung the stars in the night sky, set the spinning earth on its axis, or stocked the oceans with sea creatures of every kind. David was marveling at the magnificent masterpiece called David. Me. You. He knew that full well.

You are God’s workmanship. His masterpiece—His grand finale of all creation. Do you know that full well? You are amazing!

God knows our inadequacies and our insecurities. He knows what caused them and who caused them. He saw you before you even had them. Yet He chose you before you were born for a purpose—to fulfill a plan in a predetermined point in time (Acts 17:26).

So, let’s let go of comparison and take hold of our God-given uniqueness!

You ready to do that? If so, leave a comment to say, “I am ready to take hold!”

Lord, thank You for making me with unique gifts and talents. Thank You that there is no one else just like me, but I was created to Your specifications. Help me to stop comparing myself to others, but to be the best me I can be. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 Digging Deeper

Today’s devotion comes from Take Hold of the Faith You Long For: Let Go, Move Forward, Live Bold. Just as a trapeze artist who grabs hold of a second bar but refuses to let go of the first, we can get stuck in our faith when we refuse to let go of all that holds us back. It’s time to let go of all that holds us hostage to a “less than” life…and that includes comparing ourselves to others. Let’s take hold of all that Jesus has already taken hold of for us and placed in us! And that includes our uniqueness! (Also includes a Bible study guide.

Check out the bundle that includes the laminated My Identity In Christ card.

 

 




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Comments 29

  14. Thank you, Sharon for reminding me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And for the encouragement to let go of the “less than life.” I needed to hear that.

    Shalom.

    Juvena

    Reply

  20. I am ready to take hold! I so needed this after last night’s orchestra practice. I feel so inept compared to the others. Yet we don’t even play the same instrument! Why am I comparing myself to them? God gave me this talent and I need to thank Him and do my best instead of complaining. How does that glorify God when I’m complaining? I need to trust God in all my music and playing abilities.

    Reply

  24. Sharon thanks for sharing this letter. I am someone with physical impairment, I never new that all this while I was killing my confidence in the Name of COMPARISON.

    I missed a lot of opportunities just because I looked at myself as someone who cannot do it but someone do it well. I am ready leave Comparison and do my focus

    Reply

  28. Hello Sharon,

    Thank you again for this important message, great word contentment!!

    I agree with you. The more we understand our identity in Christ will liberate us and walk in our unique power.
    We are so blessed!!

    Reply

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