I’m currently curled up on the couch at a little Airbnb in Orlando. My mom, sister and I planned a little getaway here at Disney World, where my sister works! Though it was short noticed, it has definitely been much needed. I’m on cloud nine!
Though Disney is said to be the most magical place on earth, I keep thinking back to the night before I made the seven hour drive (eight with the time change). Something absolutely incredible happened that Friday night. I was at a church in Jackson, MS with nervous excitement washing over me in waves. Teenage girls trickled in, I met a few, and made conversation as the event began. More than anything I wanted God to show up, and the girls to leave the event longing for him, and equipped to find their purpose in him. Centered around the garden of Eden, The Garden was an event intended to encourage and strengthen young women in their walk with the Lord, by taking them back to the beginning.
I took the stage and smiled at the women seated before me. We prayed, and then I began.
That night, I spoke on a topic that is all too familiar with the female population: comparison.
Ohhh, Comparison. Not only is it the thief of joy like Teddy Roosevelt said, but it’s also a thief of intimacy, and gratitude. Comparison focuses our eyes on the world around us, and pits us against it. It doesn’t bring us closer together, it pushes us farther apart.
Inside each of us is a desperate desire for more. We want to make an impact, we want to be better, we want to do something that matters. I believe that desire is an eternal one. It was given to Adam and Eve in Eden, when all was perfect and humanity walked with God. Now, we desire it, hunger for it, and desperately try to fulfill it. But, this desire cannot be quenched by the earthly, it can only be satisfied by the eternal.
It was comparison that separated humanity from God through sin all those years ago….
In Genesis 2:16-17 God says something very specific. He tells Adam that he may eat from ANY tree in the garden of Eden except for one specific tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam were to eat of it, he would die.
In Genesis 3, we read the story of Eve. You may be familiar with the story, you may not. Regardless, it’s worth the read. To summarize, Eve is in the garden of Eden, everything is perfect, when a serpent comes on the scene. The serpent asks Eve why she can’t eat from any trees in the garden. Eve corrects the serpent and tells it that God said she and her husband could eat from all trees except one. After Eve explains why (they will die) the serpent laughs to himself (my opinion) and says, “You won’t DIE! God knows your eyes will be opened once you eat the fruit, and that you will be just like him!”
It didn’t take more convincing than that. Eve listened to the serpent, picked the fruit, gave some to her husband, Adam, and they both ate it.
The results were instant shame, and though it wasn’t instant, it was absolutely inevitable: death.
Eve had been so focused on being LIKE God, that she disobeyed God in the process.
How many of us are SO focused on the earthly, that we lose sight of the eternal?
As believers, I think one of the main battle tactics the enemy uses against us is through comparison. Comparison distracts us from what’s really going on. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
Another version says “our battle is not against flesh and blood”. Meaning that humans aren’t the enemy, no matter what. There is something BIGGER going on behind the scenes. Comparison is like a game of fog and mirrors. It makes us look at our neighbor and measure our worth against there’s. Then, almost instantly, envy and shame are the results if we don’t feel like we don’t measure up, OR pride and arrogance are what results because we feel better than the other person.
I think the enemy is onto something.
More than anything, satan wants to distract us from God’s glory. Satan is not God’s equal, and he knows how his story ends- God is the triumphant, Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord of all. Even satan knows that. SO, if satan can’t steal God’s glory, if satan can’t be God’s equal, if satan can’t even COMPARE to God, he will do everything in his power to use comparison against God’s children.
Why?
Because comparison forces us to focus on the earthly, not the eternal.
Just like in the Garden, comparison forces us to focus on what others say, think and are rather than what God has said, written and is.
When I speak of the eternal, I’m not limiting the use of the word to mean heaven. Instead, I’m referring to the things that don’t die when we do. God things. Things that will have an eternal impact, things that give a purpose that is bigger than ourselves. It is my belief that we can literally bring heaven to earth in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ. God connected heaven and earth through Jesus, and now WE can connect to God in and through a relationship with his son.
1 Corinthians 12:12-29 goes into great detail about how each of us is different from the other. We all have been given different gifts and talents. Just like a body has different parts, (eyes, nose, legs, heart, kidneys), so does the church, the body of Christ. The author, Paul, goes into great detail about the importance of each part. We need eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to pump blood. BUT, what if the heart decided it wanted to be like the eyes? What if it stopped doing it’s purpose and started to compare itself to the parts around it?
EXACTLY.
The body wouldn’t function how it should. Paul brings up a brilliant point here. Just like our physical bodies, each member of the body of Christ (the Church) has a specific purpose, and that purpose is as important, vital and different as the part beside it.
God openly invites us into relationship with him. ONLY in a relationship with Jesus Christ can we be truly satisfied.
Instead of struggling to be more like the people around us, I think we should refocus our sight to the God above us. This is truly the only way that we can be exactly who God created us to be! God has such an incredible adventure for each of us. He longs for us, and waits for us.
Let us run to him like never before !!!
xoxo
Anna Filly
Also- for your viewing pleasure :
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