A Prayer to Forgo Comparison - Your Daily Prayer - September 11

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A Prayer to Forgo Comparison
By Tammy Darling

Bible Reading
“Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else.” Galatians 6:4, NIV

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The day was the perfect combination of sucks and ugly. From the moment I woke up, my attitude sucked, and I felt nothing but ugly…inside and out.

Perusing Facebook didn’t help. One friend was going on vacation, another extolling the myriad accomplishments of her teenage daughter, and still another posting “before and after” pics of her twenty-five-pound weight loss.

Once again, I played the comparison game. And every time I play, I lose. Every. Single. Time. There’s a cost to comparison that we just don’t consider beforehand; it leaves us bankrupt in the end.

Comparison began in the Garden of Eden, when Eve compared what the snake told her with what God had already said. After comparing the two, she decided she’d rather have what the snake was offering. Comparison has been a problem ever since.

There’s a huge lie swirling around us that says we’re not enough. Just look at her…you should look that good. Or, see his wife, his car, his position in the company? What have you got? And so our hungry hearts seek that which cannot be fulfilled by the world.

Comparison is fear-based. It rises from the lie that we’re not good enough or are inadequate. We fear we’re missing out, that we’ll never measure up, that others are more valuable or favored. The result is insecurity, and before long, we’re no longer living from who we were created to be.

At its core, comparison is a heart issue. It reveals our brokenness and leads to dissatisfaction with who we are and what we have. When things aren’t right on the inside, we’ll seek approval from the outside. But the world cannot provide what only God can give.

God has a specific plan for each of our lives that cannot be fulfilled if we look to others for validation. One of the greatest costs of comparison is that it steals our destiny and our potential. We should never trade our destiny for what someone else has. What another person has wasn’t meant for us and won’t take us where we need to be.

We can get so caught up in what everyone else is doing that we miss the opportunities right in front of us. We’re looking out the window at the neighbor while God has just opened a door in the next room—but we don’t even realize it.

Comparison warps our identity, and we lose sight of how awesome we really are. You are richer than you think, more loved than you know, more beautiful than you believe. But when we compare ourselves to others, we forget what God says about us.

I spent many years comparing myself to other women. I was miserable beyond measure. No good thing comes from comparing oneself to another.

Finally, I got a clue. There are a million ways to die, but only one way to truly live—the way God made me. Instead of comparing myself to others, I learned that my true beauty is revealed when I make peace with my own reflection.

The danger of social media is in believing that what you see or read is all there is to the matter. No one is as happy clappy as they make it out to be. But like a cancer, social media comparison eats away at our being. “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30, NIV).

Instead of comparing myself with others, I’ve started to compare myself with myself. For instance, if I’m using the treadmill to improve my health, I no longer compare myself to someone who just hiked 10 miles or ran a 5k. That’s the fastest way to get discouraged. Instead, I compare today’s progress to yesterday’s progress—am I improving? Beating my own time? Becoming healthier? When we know that we’ve done our best, there’s no reason to compare ourselves to anyone else.

If we rely on God’s opinion rather than others’ when it comes to what defines success, beauty, and so many other things, we won’t compare ourselves to anyone else. We have God’s measuring stick, not our own or that of others, that we can live by. And that is enough. In fact, it’s more than enough.

I don’t want to forfeit my true heart’s desire because I’m playing the comparison game. I wasn’t put on this earth to live for the approval of others or to “beat” them in some imaginary game of life. I want to remain faithful to who I am, who God created me to be.

Comparison is ugly, no matter how you try to color it. The cost of comparison is simply too high. It’s a price I’m no longer willing to pay; I don’t want to live bankrupt. My heart’s desire is found in God alone.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father,

We renounce all comparisons and lay down the need to judge ourselves against others. No more “stare and compare.” Comparison is not of You.

We thank You for being fearfully and wonderfully made. You do not make mistakes, and our individual unique qualities and quirks are specially designed by You, our Master Creator. May we learn to embrace who You created us to be. And may we remind ourselves each day who You say we are.

In Your great name we pray, Amen.

Share your reflections on today’s devotional in the Your Daily Prayer discussion on the Crosswalk Forum.

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Tammy Darling is the author of 1,600 published articles and three books. She writes from her home in rural Pennsylvania.

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