Wow Series 6

505

Good morning Friend.

I trust the Web of Wisdom Series has been enlightening for you as it has been for me. God keeps opening our eyes to several dimensions of His wisdom from time to time. The greatest gift God could give any man is revelation knowledge. A Knowledge of God in your heart will change your life forever. So beyond what we share here on this blog, please go further and dig into scriptures to glean from the eternal wealth of Wisdom contained there.
Today by God’s Grace, I’ll be pointing our attention in an area of Wisdom that I think will tremendously help us in days to come. It is the matter of UNHEALTHY COMPARISON. This is one of the most unwise things for any believer to engage in.

2 Corinthians 10:12-14 (KJV) 12  For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
13  But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
14  For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:

Here, Apostle Paul was making it clear that comparison is unhealthy and unwise. Many of us engage in this very unhealthy mental habit from time to time and sometimes we don’t even realise it. It has been so ingrained into our subconscious that sometimes it’s like an auto response. Whenever we see people, we quickly size them up and give a measure or standard and eventually, we measure ourselves against that standard. If we measure up to or above that measure, we are quick to feel superior and when we measure below the standard, we feel inferior and undone.

Apostle Paul says each of us has a measure and it’s foolish to compare different measures at different stages as though they were the same. Each measure is judged on its own basis. I’ll highlight below some dangers and detriments of unhealthy and unwise comparisons;

1.It blinds you to God’s investment in you: Comparison is healthy as long as it is for the purpose of edification and comfort. For example, I could compare you to someone to make you realise that if that person could do something worth while then you can all the more believe in God to work in you even a greater dimension. In this context, comparison is inspirational. However, when you’re so focused on another man’s glory or accomplishment to the extent that your little victories grow pale and non existent in your eyes, you have by yourself despised your days of little beginning, and seeing better days may be far fetched. When you compare yourself with others to the extent that you begin to feel envy in your heart, BEWARE! You have done injustice to all the investment of heaven within you. God will always test your ability to recognise greatness at its seed state, including the greatness He has locked up in you. If you cannot recognise it when it’s at the seed level, you’re not entitled to its full harvest. By that stroke of folly, you have also told God that His investment in you was a total waste. You may not realise this, but this is what happens every time we unduly compare ourselves with others in order to sort of measure and figure out who is ahead in the scheme of things. Parents compare their children with other children, students compare grades, Fathers compare wealth, ladies compare relationships, etc.

The temptation is altogether overwhelming now in this century with the advent of Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms where the pictures of status are pasted with little or no discretion. People who didn’t know how well you were faring now know you’ve had to travel to Dubai 3 times in the last quarter, and then their own trip to Ghana within the year suddenly becomes distasteful. This leads me to the next point;

2.It makes you ungrateful and hardened: The things you would thank God for and give a testimony about suddenly becomes an object of worry, concern and sometimes even depression. When you built and moved into that house (bungalow) in Epe and escaped the perpetual rental assault of your Landlord, you couldn’t stop thanking God for His faithfulness until you visited your friend who lived in a semi detached property in the heart of banana island. That day when you returned home, your home; once upon a time a source of joy and happiness, suddenly becomes so repulsive to you, thereby making you ungrateful to God. Rather than thanking Him, your prayer points now change to accommodate your new lust… Lord give Banana Island or I die! Let’s not be unwise and keep going from lust to lust simply because there was someone around with a better toy. A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possession… Luke 12:15.

The funny thing is that you may eventually get what you craved, but it brings leanness to your soul. Let me show you a very insightful passage of scripture.

Psalms 106:13-16 (KJV) 13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
14  But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. 
15  And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
16  They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD.

They started by forgetting God’s faithfulness, then entered into lust and envy… Even though their requests were granted, there was leanness in their souls. What’s that accomplishment worth? Your soul? Be watchful because these tendencies can be very subtle.

3. Man becomes your standard: The moment you begin to compare yourself with others, those people become your standard and you cannot be better than your standard. Even if God had it in mind to make you better, you just short changed yourself. Your real competition isn’t with a human competition, your competition is with your identity in Christ. What has God called you? That’s what you should be pursuing and not another man. So what happens when you catch your rival and eliminate him? You lose your vision? C’mon, God is more genius than making your life a clone of another. Man isn’t your standard, God’s Word over you is. Cease from this unhealthy and unwise comparisons and take hold of your future.

4. You become insecure and drained: Unhealthy comparison killed Saul. He was content and humble until the “amazing israeli women” began singing a song that Saul should never have heard or better still listened to. (P.S: Beware of women who are too quick to sing your Praise… Lol) They said Saul killed his thousands but David his ten thousands… From that moment, Saul concentrated all his energy and that of the entire nation on eliminating David, what a misplacememt of priorities! He drained himself of potential ideas and innovation that could move the nation forward, and began chasing down a self supposed rival. No one is your rival until you make them one! You have no rival before God. God ordained a place and called it YOUR HIGH PLACE. Your DNA is the only one that can survive there, so why the comparison?

5. You rob God, yourself and the world: Every man is a dimension of God to the world. God isn’t visible, but He made Himself visible to all creation through creation itself… Romans 1:20. You are one very powerful dimension of God to mankind. Comparing yourself with others makes you despise your uniqueness and you then begin to chase after another man’s flavour. With this corrupt pursuit, the best you will ever become is a reminder of the original, never the original. You rob God of the fulfilment of creation, you rob yourself of the joy of expression and you rob the world of the beauty of your uniqueness.

Comparison is the the devil’s ploy to give you another vision and pursuit. Man isn’t the goal, God’s Word is. 

Please stay grateful and faithful to the calendar of God for your life. Never compare yourself unhealthily with someone else nor begin to covet what’s not yours. Stay committed to the plan of God for your life and see God smile from heaven and say… “That’s a wise son!”.

Have a great week ahead.