Then he said to the crowd, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? -- Luke 9: 23-25 (NLT)
Comparing yourself to others is selfish by nature. You are putting yourself ahead of the other person and ahead of God. You are trying to hang onto your own life instead of sitting on the potter's wheel and trusting the Potter. Trusting the Creator. Trusting His plan. The Apostle Paul, sitting in prison when he knew his time on this earth was almost up, penned the letter to the church at Philippi. He had evangelized the entire known world and saw exponential church growth. God did miracles through him. Yet as he sat awaiting his certain death, he wrote these words:
I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. -- Philippians 3: 12-14 (NLT)
What humility. Paul could have compared himself positively like the Pharisee did with the publican and puffed himself up. If we are to continue to grow in the Lord we too must press on. We must forget what has passed. We must not look to the left or too the right. We must avoid the spirit of comparison that seeks to destroy us. We must remember the declaration from Jesus to Peter and to us today:
"What is that to you? As for you"follow me."
Reverend Anthony Wade -- April 13, 2012
