Go Compare - Toni Fraser

What would life be like without peer measurement?

Jesus tells us to come to Him all who are heavy burdened because He will give us rest. He didn’t say, ‘come to me all who are heavy burdened, and I’ll show you people who can do better than you!’ He doesn’t do that, and neither should we!

Think: What would it be like to life without peer comparison? What would it be like if we only looked to God for measure? Just meditate on that for a minute! Furthermore, what would life be like without the ability to second guess ourselves? Would it mean there would be less self-justification in your life, less of digging holes to bury oneself in? Would it benefit us or hinder us?

Jesus says, ‘come to ME all who are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest’.  There appears to be an epidemic of anxiety and depressive disorders nowadays. However, put on your spectacles and look at how God sees you. Behold, I have come so that you may have life and life in its fullness. He says, ‘I am the way the truth and the life,’ not your neighbour, not your work colleague, not your shop assistant, not you parents of guardians, not the professor you know, not MR and Mrs Bucket, only Him, almighty God.

We so easily sync ourselves into what we see or what we perceive to be true. Our society/culture has us playing an unwritten rule of ‘anything You can do I can do better, anything you can do I can do better than you! no you can’t, yes I can, no you can’t, yes I can!!!’. ‘Or ‘if I think you're better than me, then I’m going to rubbish you’. (I’ve gone to extremes there) God says that when we become Christians we are transferred from the dominion of darkness into His great light, i.e. them competitive rules don’t measure up anymore! We acknowledge our wrongs and understand that Jesus death was the payment of our wrongs, whether past, present or future and moreover when we commit to following Him, then and only then do we have the choice to life and dwell in the kingdom of love rather than the kingdom of false measurements and mis-guided self-satisfaction.

Switch on your Bible and there it is, the first chapter says, ‘In the beginning God’. Moreover, In Matthew, Jesus teaches us to put first things first, i.e. put the Kingdom of God first. He is our perspective, He is our food, He is our perspective, He is our parent, our Father.

When we stop functioning in the secular it is then we see how awesome our God really is! We can see a different set of directions. We understand that he is much bigger, powerful than what our cultural norms dictate. He says the Holy Spirit that dwells within us is activated when we sync into what the Word says.   Think on this, do you really want the Holy Spirit who dwells within us being bored. Earthly Struggles

I used to hate my thighs. I’m short (5 foot 3 inch), when I look down on them, to me, they seem HUGE. However, after a bit of parental questioning I realised that my thighs are actually similar to a 5 foot 8 person, aka my Spiritual Mam! Our measure is this, if I eat healthily, and look after the vehicle God has given me to live here on earth, then nothing I can do will change the shape or size of my thighs. Almighty God knit me together, it’s His fault. I may as well accept it.

If you are overweight for whatever reason, don’t make it your life focus. Make Jesus your focus, allow Jesus to guide you into wholeness, healthiness. If like me, you like crisps and cake, then go on a diet from crisps and cake. It is that simple! Also, If you are underweight, don’t make that your life focus, unless it is affecting your functionality, allow God to guide you. Make the Holy spirit work!  Phillipians 4: says think on what ever is true, what ever is noble,

Here’s another example of peer measurement:
My husband is a primary school teacher and he is awesome at his job. Everyone loves him. We can’t go into town without a parent or child getting excited about seeing him walk through town. This has made me feel somewhat inferior in the past as I tag along un-noticed! However, in my employment it would be useless for me to be able to teach but to not be able to interpret. In my area of work, I am all I need to be as is he. My husband has the patience of a saint (most of the time coz he’s human) however I haven’t. His measure of patients outweighs mine, easily. The devil makes light work of us if he can get us to compare and dislike what we have. If I try and measure myself against him, I will feel inferior every time. However, He says if he tries to measure up against me he feels the same. How can that be?

We both feel the same about each other. The truth is we have been given different roles in our life. My character can be somewhat feisty whilst his can be passive. Because we have both opposite aspects we have all we need in our marriage. It's not that his passiveness is correct and mine is wrong, its we work together. If we had the same gifting his passivity would get us into trouble because he would have the tendency to allow a lot to happen to him us without interjection. On the other hand, if he was like me, then we would have the police at our door because I tend to be blunt and direct often (historically) without filter (tongue in cheek there)

Obviously, they’re extremes I’m using to get my point across. The Bible says we are all members of the same body. Were meant to be different from each other. The correct perspective is, to thank God for who he has made you and thank God for who He has emade them. Thank God for our differences, thank God that were not all the same. That way everyone's a winner! Amen!
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Prayer:
Almighty God, everyone’s a winner when we sync into being who You created us to be. Lord I’m sorry for comparing myself with your other children, please forgive me. I turn away form that way of being. I follow you, you are my guide now and forever more.
Amen.