The Discontented Life: "The One True Comparison - Part 4 by Jennifer Zabel
Are you exhausted, worn out, and anxious from trying to keep up with a false set of expectations? God wants to give you rest. “Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me” Psalm 116:7. God can’t love you anymore than he already does. Be still. Stop trying to reach a standard that He did not even create for you. Comparing ourselves to others is futile. God has created each of us with different purposes in mind. As He “knit us together in our mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13), He placed within us, a different mixture of giftings to ultimately be used for His glory. The only comparison we should be making in this life in regards to ourself, is to Christ Jesus. Our quest should be to daily become more like Jesus, “the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (I Peter 1:19) and to use our lives to glorify God while doing so. It goes without saying that we will never attain the perfection that is Jesus, but his characteristics are those we should desire and work to possess. To become heaven focused, servant hearted, lacking judgement, and full of love should be considered the ultimate gain. God has given us an example of what to aspire to, and friends, it has nothing to do with our appearance or anything of material value. So, stop looking to your peers as a guide and start looking to God. Put down your magazines, turn off your choice of social media, and dig into His word. There you will find a blueprint for a life full of indescribable peace and joy, and contentment that can only come from the Father. You will also be able to find personal value instead of feelings of inadequacy, failure, and defeat. The bible says to “put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him” Colossians 3:10. My prayer for you, and for me, is that we would seek earnestly to become a “Paul” of our generation and be contented with ourselves and our lives. Let’s begin to make our story of “The Discontented Life” into one that is titled “The Contented Life: One who is Grateful.