I love the power of what the author of Hebrew said
in Hebrews chapter 12 this is a word for somebody today the author to the Hebrews said this and
let us run with perseverance and here's what I love the author said this the race marked out
for us do you realize there is a specific race for you to run and your race is different than
my race I can't win your race you can't win my race God has a race for you and his assignment
for you is to run the race marked out for you and how do you do that fix your eyes on Jesus the
pioneer and perfecter of your faith what do you do when you're running your race you're fixing
your eyes on Jesus I want to please him I want to know him I want to show him I want to serve
him I want to live for him I want to glorify him I'm fixing my eyes on Jesus and I'm not running
to please people what you look at you tend to become like you tend to move in that direction
whatever you gaze at whatever you focus on whatever you give your attention to your heart
follows the more you spend time looking at gazing at focusing on thinking about uh moving moving
towards the more you you delight in those things the more you love those things the more your heart
goes in those directions what I gaze out I move towards for some of you you may love Jesus but
your eyes are on people all the time everything in you is like what do they think do I live up how
do I measure do they like me do I fit in what's the problem please hear me the problem is being
obsessed with what people think about you is the fastest way to forget what God thinks about you
I'm going to say that again because somebody needs to hear this being obsessed with what people think
about you that's the fastest way to forget what God thinks about you and and the the really bad
news is is you can't please everybody I mean right I mean as soon as you fit into one group
you're out of the other and as soon as you fit in one place you don't live up to something else
and the bad news is you can't please everybody the good news is guess what you can please God you can
please God when you love him by faith with faith it is possible to please God the
challenge is it's impossible to win someone's uh someone else's race who are you racing
who are you racing I'm just wondering who in your life have you set your eye on and you are running
your race according to their pace instead of keeping your eyes on Jesus and doing the
thing that he called you to do running the race that he set out before you before the foundation
of the earth I'm here to warn you today that the comparison game is a dangerous
game to play so I'm just preaching for my weakness today because I found in my own life
as I'm running the race God has set before me I have this inward proclivity and tendency to look
at the people in the lanes beside me hear me I am convinced that the number one destroyer of destiny
is comparison comparison is the thief of joy comparison is like cancer to contentment
wherever comparison begins contentment ends how many know comparing can just eat you
up I don't know about you all but it's really easy to be satisfied with your life
until you see someone else has something you don't because the fastest way to kill something special
is to compare it to something else sometimes I just wonder I just wonder if the screens on our
phones our computers and our iPads have now become mirrors which we constantly check for reflection
to see if we measure up to somebody else and like a scene stolen from snow white we silently echoed
the words of the wicked witch who checked the mirror every day just trying to figure out mirror
mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all only today it's mirror mirror on Facebook tell me
how my life should look mirror mirror on Instagram tell me who I really am and we keep checking
every minute interestingly enough the bible calls the word of God a mirror
just wonder what our lives would look like if we reflected on the word of God
say God I'm gonna believe what you say about me stay in my lane and keep my eyes on you well the
first thing I think you need to understand is that these people that you're comparing yourself to you
don't really know very well what that means is that you see they're shiny outside but you
don't see the reality of their life you know you can't tell and people have hard lives and and even
people who are comparatively fortunate have hard lives and so the the ideal that you're observing
that makes you jealous and resentful is in large part an illusion that's created by your own mind
you have to be careful of what you're jealous of because you don't really know what it is
you're you're quite different from other people and you shouldn't be comparing yourself to them
because they're not like you compare yourself to who you were yesterday and not to who someone
else is today and see that's a game you can win because you could be a little better today than
you were yesterday and that's a good thing this is your moment this is a season where God needs
the real you to stand up everybody else has been taken you may as well just be you be the original
God created you to be when we come to the end of life we're not going to stand before any person
and give our account we're going to stand before almighty God he's not going to say why didn't
you do what they said why didn't you fit into their mold why didn't you take their opinion
he's going to ask did you become who I created you to be did you stay true to
what I put in your heart who are you let me tell you who you are you are the masterpiece of God
created in Christ Jesus get this to do good works which God prepared in advance for you to do God
knew what he would put inside of you when you'd be born at what time you'd be born at what place
in the world you'd be born at what he knew the gifts he would put in you so that you could best
glorify him today you're the masterpiece of God he prepared you so guess what you can't run somebody
else's race and we are running a race that I don't know about you but I want to finish my race I love
and I don't mean just you know get old and die I mean I want to do what God has called me to do
until I breathe the very last breath that I have on this earth my challenge to you run your race
don't you dare let people squeeze you into their mold always be kind but be confident
enough in who God made you to be that you don't live to please people you live to please God
our attitude should be I'm free to be me and I'm going to be the best me that I possibly can
remember you don't have to try to play up to people to try to win their approval you have
almighty God's approval quit worrying about what everybody thinks as long as you're being true to
what God's put in your heart don't look to the left nor to the right stay focused on your goals