Do you ever compare yourself with others?
"She is prettier than me."
"She is smarter than me."
"She is more accomplished than me."
"She is a better mother or wife than me."
Why do we continue to bring ourselves down with negativity and jealously of others? Why can’t we just be happy for another’s success?
The problem is we are putting our security in something other than God. We are putting our happiness in someone else’ s hands. We are letting the world and everything we are surrounded by tell us what will make us happy and secure in our own skin. The only way we will ever feel secure and happy is to be secure in God’s love.
Most of us are familiar with David in the bible. When David comes to mind we think of the “man after God’s own heart.” In the eighteenth book of Samuel we learn about David’s recent successes under the rule of King Saul. David is gifted with God’s spirit and continues to receive blessings upon blessings from God. We learn that Saul on the other hand has abandon God, he consistently disobeys God and ultimately loses his blessings. Saul. King Saul. I want to make that clear that Saul was the king and David did what Saul asked of him! David fought against the Philistines in order to keep Israel safe and David received praise from the people. This should have made Saul happy that David had successfully battled the Philistines but Saul was not thinking of the good of the people. He was thinking of himself.
“And the woman answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him;”
These verses were the turning point of this story. The words from the woman sent Saul into a flood of jealousy. Saul could not stand that David was receiving honor. Saul then attempts to kill David twice and continually sent David to battle, hoping David would be killed. Yet, God had His hand on David and David became more and more successful and Saul became more and more jealous. Saul refused to repent and let David share the glory.
It would seem that Saul had all things good. He was the king! Yet he wanted more. That is exactly what happens in our own lives. We have all we need. The creator of the universe loves and cares for us! What more could we want?!
Yet we continue to compare ourselves to others and that gets us no where. There is always going to be someone prettier than you, someone who has more money than you, or someone who is better at the sport you like to play; and that is OKAY. The strengths of others often scare us and remind us of our weaknesses. However, we need to let our weaknesses humble us and cause us to depend on God. God’s purpose for making us with weaknesses is so that together we are whole, not separate.
If we are secure in God’s love, then you can be happy when God blesses someone else.
We should strive to please God and He will take care of everything else.
Be inspired by others success; don’t be jealous, learn from it.
“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
