College is full of many opportunities... and we want to take advantage of all of these great circumstances that God presents us with. However, college also has the tendency to amplify comparison. When we're put into a place that seems like a playing field of talented, motivated, and successful people, doubt has the tendency to creep into our minds and attempt to destroy anything that has to do with "success."
Listen to this sentence: You are enough in Christ. You are not mediocre. You have the potential to change the world. I am speaking to myself as I type these things too, you are not alone. The enemy makes it so easy for self-hate to creep into our hearts and minds and make us feel unworthy and even lonely. These ideas of self-hate and self-doubt let us wrongfully compare ourselves to others through the lens of the world. This lens focuses on society's idea of success and love, which are extremely tainted and heart breaking.
Don't let the circumstances of your life beat up on your faith. Don't live your life blindly giving into comparison- let His beauty and grace interpret the circumstances of your life. Do this now... don't wait! Ask Him to deliver you from your blindness and pray that you can see your life through His lens, not the world's crappy comparison lens.
The enemy uses anything that you struggle with in your life to take away your heart for glorifying God and basking in His grace that He freely gives to us. He knows fully that life is difficult, we are called higher than the earth that we are living in, we are called to focus on heaven. Whether that be comparison, lust, doubt, control, or anything that takes away from the magnificent grace that God gives you as a gift to free you, the enemy wants you to forget how great God is.
1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be sober minded, be watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist Him!" Think about that visual for a moment. Lions are fierce creatures, but God has already defeated this lion for you. Rest in that peace and surrender to the Lord. Jesus is on your side. He desires our love and He doesn't want us to settle for whatever we are working towards in comparison.
It is easy to get caught up in thinking about what others think of you or what you want others to think about you in our crazy college world of comparison. God's grace covers our fickle hearts with His grace. This grace makes our jealous minds and the insecurities of our hearts change from focusing on ourselves to focuses on God's beauty and incomprehensible love.
Take a moment to bask in His redemptive power and His beautiful grace. Comparison does not glorify God. Trust Him and His plan for your life instead of comparing what you want, what you wish you had, or what you think would be the best for your life. Stop getting stuck in your selfish desires! He is a good father and He is faithful to you, always. When self-doubt and self-hate, or insecurity, or loneliness, or thoughts of inadequacy arise in your mind and heart, remember what God says about who you are and cling to it!
Comparison steals your joy! Remember who Christ says you are and find joy in that instead. He loves us deeply and completely. He is perfect in all of His ways, your search stops at Him. Remember your first love.
"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. For sin shall not be your master... because you are under grace." Romans 6:6-14
We are redeemed.
