How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

I think it's safe to say at this point that we all know comparison is a product of mindlessly scrolling through social media throughout the day. Comparison can motivate us to improve or learn to be better, but it can also be a real joy killer. We look at other people's snapshots of their lives and think we need what they have. We think what we have isn't good enough. Honestly, it's pretty exhausting. For me, it takes a time of catching up with friends and turns it into false sense of reality that I'm falling behind in life (I'm not even sure what "falling behind" would be since we're all on different timelines, but you know what I mean).

In my prayer time, I was expressing to Jesus that I don't want to compare my life to other people's lives anymore. I don't want to be like other people; I want to be like Jesus. I told him that I wanted to live, react, and be how he was when he was here on Earth.

So He showed me that if we want to be more like Him that we need to stop trying to mimic his

behaviors and start seeking after the connection with the Father that he has. When we have an established relationship with the Father, the outpouring of the relationship is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These qualities can't be copied or recreated without receiving them firsthand from the Father himself. Our direct connection to the Father equips us with the tools to fight temptation, to have victory over darkness, and to defeat our spiritual giants.

Let's recall Luke 4 for a second. This is the time in Jesus' life when he was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert and was tempted for forty days. Pause. Jesus was tempted. He was human. He was man. He was flesh and blood. He felt hunger, he felt temptation, and he felt weakness. YET he was equipped with God's word, he knew the promises his Father had spoken over him, and he had faith that God's word was truth. Jesus defeated the devil in the desert and it says that the devil left him alone until the next opportunity came. The devil doesn't stop messing with you! That's why we need to be constantly in communication with our Heavenly Father...because he gives us the tools to defeat evil and through him we will be victorious.

We can't drum up faith, positivity, or good vibes on our own. Our faith only comes from an established relationship with God and the trust that forms out of a longstanding relationship with him. He shows us time and time again how good he is and that he will be victorious. So when we start looking at other people and comparing victories, we're discrediting what God has done in our own lives. The second we start looking at other people's lives is the second we've stopped focusing on our own relationship with the Father. Turn your eyes back to him and you'll remember how good he's been to you. I think you'll find that when you've been busy looking to him and communicating with him that you've forgotten about comparing yourself to others.