Live Free with Josh Howerton - Resist Comparison | Ep. 307 | Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Who do you compare yourself to? Why? Comparison will always lead to either despair or pride. God created you to be you, not for you to try and be someone else. Even though it may be difficult, God calls us to rejoice with those who rejoice. God has given you amazing things that envy makes you blind to. Ask Him to help you see and be content with the good gifts in your life. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. Hope your week is off to a great start. My name is Bro, an honor that you would join us here on this short Monday through Friday podcast.

Since we have been in the final days of March Madness, you know the road to the final four, the NCAA college basketball tournament came to an end last night, and hopefully your team won and you got to celebrate. Well, we've kind of been locked in on our own brackets we've been calling the fatal four. We've been talking about four things that can much more than just bust our brackets. They can wreck our lives and take us out. We've talked about pride. We spent a few days talking about anger. And yesterday we introduced a very underrated opponent.

One of those kind of considered a mid-major level flying under the radar, but it's extremely deadly. It's a little thing called envy. We talked about how it's insidious in nature, and even though it's listed in the Bible, right alongside of things like murder, We tend to dismiss it, and if we dismiss it, it'll ruin our health, wreck our relationships, rev up or pay, steal away our gratitude, and get us spending our days living in the comparison trap. James 316 says this, for where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder in every evil practice.

So we ought to get after this, you think? You know, yesterday I told you we talked about a game plan to employ against this, So here goes. Resist comparison and practice gratitude. Resist comparison and practice gratitude. First of all, resist comparison. If you compare yourself to other people, one of two things is going to happen. You'll either find someone that's better than you, and that leads to inferiority, which

leads to envy, or you'll find someone you're better than, and you'll get full of that unhealthy pride. And that's why that whole keeping up with the Joneses thing is a myth. There will always be Joneses with more than you, or Joneses with less than you. And comparing yourself is just a deadly, deadly game. I love the way the message puts Galatians chapter 6, verse 4. Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and sink yourself into that.

Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. You know, I can't be anybody but me. There's so many people out there I admire. and respect and look up to people with awesome abilities and skills and intelligence and some have the looks they got the height they got the hair of which i have none of those but god didn't create me or call me to be anybody other than me i'm just a bald preacher with a beautiful wife

awesome kids 10 amazing grandkids i drive a dirty truck i got an ugly golf swing and by god's grace i get to preach and do this podcast i am just a much-loved man because of jesus christ and that's enough Resist comparison and authentically rejoice with other people. You know, it says in Romans chapter 12, Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Now, at least in my experience, I have found it easier to mourn with those who mourn, to put my arm around somebody, to cry with them, to give them a hug, to pray for them, to be there for them, to support them.

It's not as easy to rejoice and celebrate with other people when something great happens to them, especially when something great is not happening to you. Somebody told me we can fall into three traps with this. We can fall into plastic praise, mean motives, or condescending compliments. Plastic praise is like, yeah, her hair does look great. But does you check out her makeup? Or, you're so right, he is.

He is a great dad. But it seems like he sure has a hard time keeping a job. That's plastic praise. They're also mean motives. Yeah, he is pretty successful, but I guarantee you he's cheating somebody somewhere. Yeah, you know, they can really sing, but they're only in it for the spotlight. Sure, their church is growing, but, you know, it's because they water down everything. Those are mean motives.

Then there's condescending compliments. A friend just gets back from Hawaii, and they say, man, Hawaii is the prettiest place I have ever been. And you say, well, I'm sure it is, but have you ever been to Turks and Kcos? Now, that is beautiful. Or they say, I just got a great deal in this car, isn't it great? Yeah, yeah, I was reading the other day in Consumer Reports. They're not very safe, but, man, it sure is not. envy makes us say junk like that.

A buddy of mine gave me this quote. It says, I can't stand the guys who minimize and criticize the other guys, whose enterprise has made them rise above the guys who minimize and criticize. Instead of minimizing and criticizing, let's rejoice and celebrate. And you might say, well, you know what, that's just not my nature. It's not mine either. But the Bible says if anyone is in Christ, they're a new creation. gang the holy spirit can change us he can remove that green-eyed monster that used to live within and remind us in the moment to genuinely rejoice with the good fortunes of other people

galasius 525 and 26 says since we live by the spirit let us keep in step with the spirit let us not become conceited provoking and envy in each other resist comparisons and authentically celebrate and then practice gratitude remember envy is resenting god's goodness in other people's lives while ignoring his goodness in ours. So don't ignore his goodness. Be thankful for how God has blessed your life. I have talked about this so much on this podcast, because the daily practice of gratitude is such a game changer. It drives things like entitlement, resentment, cynicism, and envy out of your heart, and replaces it with joy and contentment and peace and worship. You might remember how Paul writes in Philippians chapter 4, I have learned to be content. And how do you learn that? How do you learn anything? You practice, right? And you learn contentment by practicing gratitude. So I want to challenge you today. At some point, write down a gratitude list before you go to bed the night. If you can't

write it down, just do it in your head. I've told you before how I go through the ABCs, while I'm driving, I'm out, I'm out or lying in bed or mowing grass, I just go through the ABCs. You've been attributes of God with each letter or the alphabet, that I go back a second time, and I just do things, good things that pop in my mind, that I go through a third time and do people's names that pop in my mind that start with those letters. It has been an amazing practice for me, and I'm telling you it will be for you as well. It lifts you out of the comparison trap, frees you up to genuinely celebrate with other people, and it puts that green-eyed monster in its place. You can do that today. And I hope you have a great day and we'll wrap up the fatal four tomorrow. See you then.

Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.