I want to speak to you this morning about the comparison trap. The trap of comparison. In 2015
study by researchers at the University of Essex and Cambridge showed that tendency to engage in
comparison process declines according to the lifespan or across the lifespan. As we age,
we're more likely to evaluate ourselves against the yardstick of our own past,
rather than the present state of others. Social comparison is generally most potent for the young.
Ever since the invasion of the social media into our life, it has increased the stress in many
people's lives because it seems like somebody else's success sometimes can make us feel like
we are stagnant in our own. Everybody, you have to understand instagram is insta-sham. It's a scam.
Facebook is the same. Even though they just change it to metaverse
and they're changing all of this stuff. But the reality is, if you watch A Social Media Dilemma, a
documentary on netflix. They say that they did not design instagram or social media to be a tool
that is used to connect. They developed it as a drug, that it sucks you in and
part of this drug, what it does is it throws you into a world of comparison. It throws you into a
world where you now compare your behind the scenes with somebody's high reels. You compare your inner
world with somebody else's outside world and of course you always feel like an idiot. You always
feel like you're not good enough. You know, you check what you ate this morning against somebody
else who just went on a vacation in France and they took a very filtered photo. It took them
25 minutes to actually take that photo from the angles that they took. And then you look at the
meal that you ate, you know that burrito that you warmed up from yesterday's dinner that you did
not finish. This causes anxiety for some people. This is self-imposed stress for some people. Some
people go in cold turkey, completely turn off the social media or completely go against it and say,
"This is not healthy." And might be temporarily a solution for some but the enemy has designed,
he will use either social media, he will use other people to create a comparison
trap for us. A lot of times what happens is that we examine other people's strengths
against our most obvious weaknesses. You know when somebody, when you hear somebody fasted
and you know you're shoving another burger. You're like man, "And I haven't prayed last two days."
And this thing settles in you know, like, "I'm not good enough, God doesn't love me anymore.
Man I need to fast more." And it's easy to begin to compare yourself and feel inadequate,
that you're not good, that you're forgotten by God. Somehow God did not give you the things
that you need to do what God called you to do when you compare yourself to another person. It kills
our creativity. It kills our gratefulness and it honestly paralyzes us in our state of being,
feeling of being stuck. And while you're comparing yourself to somebody else, there's somebody else
who's comparing themselves to you and feeling totally inadequate. And they're thinking if
they can only be you, realizing if they could be you they'll be as depressed as they are,
because you yourself are not content. The Bible tells us to be content with what we have.
Being content does not mean that you're satisfied. It means you're still hungry to grow but you
measure yourself against your yesterday instead of somebody else's life. You measure yourself where
you were five years ago, instead of where somebody else is right now who's running beside you.
This is challenging. Especially for people who maybe you grew up with parents who always
compared you to your older brother. "Why can't you be like him? Why can't you be like her?"
And so today what I want to do is I want to take a few, I"m going to take about seven or eight
different thoughts to share certain things how to navigate that. Number one. If you're taking notes,
write this down. Learn to appreciate someone's blessing without questioning your own. The Bible
says in Psalm 103:2 "Bless the Lord all my soul and forget not all his benefits." That means God
wants you to bless God and don't forget what He's done in your life. Grass is greener where
they water it. Learn to appreciate the beauty of someone else without questioning your own.
Ladies, learn to appreciate another beautiful female without feeling like you are not. Men,
learn to appreciate the success of somebody else without questioning right away or casting doubt
on your own. Learn to appreciate another person's family, another person's blessing, without right
away feeling like you don't measure up. It's not a race against them. You running your own race.
Learn to bless. Learn to appreciate the blessing and that's a skill that we must learn to develop.
The Bible says to count our blessings. Actually no the Bible does not say that. That's a song
that says that. There's a song that says, "Count your blessing, name them one by one,"
okay. That's not in the Bible but it's a song. It's a psalm. It's a hymn that says that,
okay. And so because sometimes you know people say, "The Bible says, 'God helps those who help
themselves.'" That's not in the Bible. That's on pinterest, okay. So that's not a Bible
and so I just want to correct myself. Count your blessings instead of comparing them.
The only thing you should compare yourself to is who you were yesterday, who you were a year ago,
who you were five years ago. And look at where and what God has done and celebrate His goodness.
It's all good to celebrate the goodness of someone else but if me admiring how green your grass is,
causes me to spit on my own, that is a bad habit and a waste of my creativity and a waste of my
perspective. And while we celebrate what God is doing in somebody else, we have to learn to
constantly compare our today with what happened a year ago, with how God has brought you through,
how God has been faithful. Where you are at today, you might not be where you should be but at least
you're not where you used to be. You might not have had your house but today you're no longer
living maybe homeless. Maybe you don't have a husband but at least you don't have some kind of
a perpetrator or some kind of an abuser in your life that you used to. You're not fornicating,
you're not living in the life of sin, you're living a life of purity and that's something to
celebrate. You might not have that but you'll also notice that I'm not where I used to be. I used to
be in jail. I'm not in the palace but I'm not in jail and so I celebrate the goodness of God in my
life. Come on somebody. Is there anybody else in this house, you have something to thank God
for. You have something to say, "God I bless your name. Lord I thank you. I thank you that you have
blessed me. I thank you that you've been good to me." And no, I'm not comparing my blessing
to yours to thank God for how He blessed me. I compare what I used to be. I know where I've been.
He picked me up from the miry clay. He placed my feet upon the rock. He placed the new song in
my mouth and therefore bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, blessed His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all of his benefits. He gave me good health. He gave me
mom and dad. He has given me His Holy Ghost. He has given me salvation. He has written my name
in the book of life. He has blessed me with the amazing country called USA. He has blessed me
with HungryGen. Somebody give God some praise for every good blessing King has given to your life!